Shattered Mirror CHAPTER 7 ADDED!
by Nemesi
Summary: [DISCONTINUED] The 'mirror' image of an old enemy is back to claim Daisuke as his own. When Daisuke surrenders willingly to him, the run against time to bring him back starts. But if that was only the game of a child...?
1. Shattered Mirror - part 1 - Awakening

** **

** **

**Nemesi's note: ^_^ You thought you would never see a fic like this, didn't you? Well, here I am posting a fic where the Kaiser and Ken fight for Daisuke's love!!!!! **

**This pretty much explains to those of you who are waiting for me to post the second part of my 'My enemy's kiss' what I've been doing, doesn't it? **

**I hope you won't mind that I got sidetracked…I think this story is worth it! It's original and unusual…^_^;; **

** **

**I'll be back soon to work on my other fic… ^_^ You know…when I wrote that fic of mine I was utterly inspired and decided to let the moment take me and write a quick Daiken that is kinda bordering on fluffy. Then I received reviews and feedbacks from nearly *all* my favorite Daiken/Kensuke fanfiction writers ever ((You all whom I'm talking about…you know who you are! ^_^))…so I thought I had to write something worth to be read from them!!!! But…that fic is pure feelings…no action, no fights…and since I'm not called Katsura ((the author of Video girl Ai)) I find a little difficult to write about pure fluffiness without…fell into pure fluffiness…@_@ **

**Dear, I'm confusing my self… **

** **

**Anyway, this fic is dedicated to the one and only Hotaru-chan who has been the first to read (and like =P) this ficcie!!! **

**As always I hope you won't be mad at me for my grammatical errors...but I'm thinking to go to and English school!! Really!! **

**I'll do it… **

**… **

**… **

**one day…@_@ **

** **

** **

** **

## Shattered mirror 

## Part 01 – Awakening 

"Ehm, I was thinking...I mean, I thought that…if you aren't doing anything...Look, I was wondering if you could…uhm…come over…We could hang out together…" Daisuke chewed nervously his bottom lip as he heard the sigh from the other end of the line. 

"Sorry, Dai, I can't." 

Pause. 

Sound of hair brushing against the mouthpiece. 

Daisuke blinked as he understood his friends was shacking his head. "I truly can't. Maybe some other time, all right? I've to go, now. Bye!" 

The tan skinned boy couldn't suppress a soft sigh. 

"By---" Then he heard the sound of the receiver hung down. It was a familiar sound for Daisuke, since from quiet some time his friends had started to evade him. 

Daisuke couldn't help but sigh again as he carefully set the receiver back down. For how strange this could sound, Daisuke was depressed. The boundless-energy-filled boy who was Daisuke had slipped down in a deep depression. 

Now that their quest to save the digital world was over, his best friend-ever, the overexcited ball of blue fur, the little Chibimon was back in his digital homelands. 

His parents were on a trip somewhere, and Jun was always out shopping, barely talking to him. 

He was completely alone. He felt lost and forgot. 

At this thought crossed his mind, Daisuke sighed again, parked himself right in front of his window and stared trough the fogged glass up at the sky. 

And his friends, you ask? AH! His so-called friends were all too busy to pay attention to him. 

Kari, the girl he still secretly liked was too busy evading all her admirers to care for spend time whit him. 

Takeru, his former rival in love, was too busy protecting Kari from her admirers to care for spend time with *anyone*. 

Miyako was too busy working on a god-knows-what's-its purpose scientific project of her. 

Iory was too busy practicing Kendo. 

And Ken? 

His best friend, the shy but genial Ken Ichijoiji, was always kind and ready to help the others. But surprisingly, that attitude left him whit no time to hang out whit his best friend. 

Daisuke had wrestled with himself over whether to call Ken or not for nearly two hours, but finally decided to do it, even if deep inside he knew how the phone convo would have gone. 

He had pictured it all in his mind, and he could swear he had heard Ken say: 

_"Sorry Dai, I can't"_ even before he had even dialed the number. 

Daisuke flopped down on his bed, eyeing the ceiling. He not only missed his former friends…he missed something else he couldn't quiet classify…something he knew he had lost; something he knew he *needed*, in order to go on. Something that tore his heart apart every time he thought about its lost. Daisuke's eyelids became heavier and he soon lost connection with reality as he feel in a deep slumber. Reaching the only place where he could be with the thing all his being longed for: the insides of his dreams.

  
* * * * *

Daisuke didn't know for how much he had slept. All he knew was that the annoying sound of the phone ringing had interrupted his wonderful dream.

Daisuke growled as he cracked his eyes open.

If only he could remember that dream all his problems would go away…in this dream he had the thing he needed the most. The thing he couldn't remember when he was awake. Shutting his eyes closed, Daisuke slowly put the receiver up and brought it to his ear.

"Dunno who or what you are," he grumbled as coherently as he could in the receiver. "But I'm busy right now, call me later if you care." 

He was about to hang down when the sound of quiet sobs reached his ear and fully awakened him. "Ehy? Who is? What's wrong??" no one replied, but the sobs became louder and more stressed. "What's happening??" he grabbed the phone with both his hands. "Ehy??"

"…Daisuke…?" came from the other end of the line.

"Who…" it took Daisuke less than a second to recognize the voice, even if it was masked by the tears. "Ken??" Daisuke shot up on his feet, hardening his grab around the receiver. "What happened?? Ken, are you all right?"

Oh, God…tell me you're all right, Ken…. Daisuke thought.

"Oh, Daisuke…" Ken burst into tears again and Daisuke patiently waited for his friend to calm down, shooting senseless words of comfort in the phone. "Daisuke…he is back…he is back!!" Ken's voiced raised from a mere whisper to a loud cry.

"Who?! Ken who is back? Ken, calm down I can't…"

"The Kaiser." Ken's smooth, quiet voice froze Daisuke in his spot. His mind went white; then, a nervous grin slowly twitched the right corner of his mouth.

"Man…you're…you're joking, right?" Only the silence answered Daisuke and the goggled boy found his knees go weak under the heaviness of Ken's revelation. "Oh, God…" he murmured.

He shook his head. Somehow that didn't seem quite right. In a way, he thought the Kaiser couldn't be back, but he wasn't really sure why. There was something about the Kaiser's return…

Daisuke shook that thoughts away and trying to sound knowing about what to do, he shouted.

"Ken? Are you still there? Who else know abut this?"

"…everyone…" Daisuke's heart sank as he realized he had been the last to know. Shacking this out from his head, Daisuke spoke again:

"All right, let's met all at…" he looked around, his mind racing. "My place his good for you?" A muffled sound came from Ken and Daisuke supposed it was his 'yes'.

"All right, come here as soon as possible, I'll call the others, right?"

"…right…" he sniffled.

"And Ken?"

"...yes…?"

"Don't worry…I'll be with you always…" Daisuke's voice softened incredibly. Then he blinked as he heard the click and the dial tone from the other end of the line.

Had Ken heard him?

Had he *cared* to hear him??  
"DAMN!!" Daisuke shouted as he slammed down the phone.

* * * * *

When the doorbell rang, Daisuke rushed full force toward the front door, tripping and slipping all the way. As he arrived he could barely stop and he prevented miraculously to crash into the door.

"Guys!" he shouted as he opened the door to let them in. They all entered, their eyes hooked on Ken's shaking form. His pale face, his red and puffy eyes, the tremble that racked his tiny body…his appearance was the one of a broken Angel.

Daisuke sighed and tried to chase away the strange wave of sadness and guilty that washed over him as he looked at the broken expression on Ken's handsome face. Taking a deep breath in, Daisuke looked around at the others.

There were all the new digidestined: Kari, T.K., Iori, Miyako, Ken, Gatomon…Ehy! Wait a moment!! All the digimon were back in the digital world, so what the hell was Gatomon doing there?! After a brief moment of shock, Daisuke expressed his doubt aloud, only to be greeted whit a:

"And who do you think tell us about the Kaiser?" from a slightly pissed Miyako.

"So, the Kaiser is back?" Daisuke shrugged, feeling even more stupid.

"Yeah" The cat-like digimon hissed, eyeing Ken. "And someone here should know *very* well…"

"I…I…I don't know what he did…" Ken started, only to be scared away by the cat's claws pointed dangerously at him.

"You…" she hissed. Daisuke wanted to step between them, to protect Ken, but Miyako beat him.

"Leave him alone, Gatomon…" she said "it's not like this is his fault."

Daisuke's bottom lip trembled as he noticed the warm hand Miyako had placed on Ken's shoulder. And the tremble grew harder as he noticed how they were discussing how to proceed without casting him a single glimpse.

Was he so useless to them?

Daisuke closed his eyes and felt the tears built up.

Damn! He was a leader and leaders don't cry!! EVER!!! He couldn't cry in front of them! Not now, not ever!!!!

His hands slowly balled into two tight fists, he had started to tremble and his eyes were squinted hardly.

Forcing himself to breath slowly, Daisuke opened his eyes, which were burning whit a steady flame, and placed them on the computer on Jun's desk.

"LET'S GO!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. The others looked down at him in quiet shock. "WE *HAVE* TO GO TO THE DIGITAL WORLD AND UNDERSTAND WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

Miyako blinked at him, before share a look whit the others: "Maybe he is right…standing here talking isn't the best way to solve our problems…" the other digidestined reluctantly nodded and followed Daisuke toward the computer.

"We're coming…" he hissed, trough his grinned teeth. Reaching out his D-3 in front of the monitor he shouted:

"DIGI-PORT OPEN!!!!!"

The lights flickered before the room filled with the familiar bluish light. Then it flashed black which was definitely strange, and swirled around them, and a second later they were gone. 

* * * * *

Ken Ichijouji awoke to the sound of a quiet voice whispering lovingly his name, which was extremely rare in the digital lands. He sat up, opened groggily his purplish eyes and blinked them several times to adjust his vision. Something had gone wrong during the trip to the digital world: during the passage between the two worlds some kind of wave had separated them all, sending them to land who-know-how-far one from another. Slowly sitting up, Ken looked around. He was in a forest, but he didn't recognize it.

"Great…" he muttered, when he remembered the voice he had thought to heard while waking up. After looking around in the midnight moonlight for a couple of minutes, Ken just raised an eyebrow and shrugged it away: no one was there.

"Oh, Keee-een??" came the taunting voice. The purple haired boy looked around frantically, but no one was there.

"Who is there?"

"Hmpf, Ken…" the voice owner paused, amused beyond words. "Don't you recognize me?"

"I…I…" Ken slowly stood up, a little scared, and moved backward till he had his back against an old three. His eyes were shifting trough the deep vegetation, searching for the voice's owner. "I don't know you…"

"KEN!" the voice shouted in rage, then a little pause followed. "C'mon…doesn't my voice ring any bell to you?" the voice was tauntingly sugary. Ken blinked, taken aback.

Did he really know who was talking?

To tell the truth, that voice was quiet familiar to him…but it was filtered by a rage and bitterness that Ken felt didn't belong there. The former Kaiser didn't reply anything for a while and soon a loud, disappointed sigh could be heard.

"Ken…I truly believe you would recognize me instantly…" a little giggle escaped the mysterious person's mouth. "He will be very sad…he trusted you…"

"I…" Ken pinned his back against the three harder, while his mind raced full speed, trying to remember *where* he had heard that voice before. His eyes were jumping around, still searching, when the mysterious voice resounded again.

"All right, then…I'll give you a little clue" a quiet slash sound broke the sudden moment of silence. Ken tried to take a step backward, but he just ended up pinning his head against the wooden surface behind him. The disturbing sound hit his ears again, making a cold shiver run down his spine.

It was the sound of a whip slashing the ground.

"C'mon now, don't you recognize me?" he teased expectantly.

"K-Kaiser…?" The voice owner broke in an evil sneer that echoed trough the whole forest.

"Yes." He finally replied, clearly amused.

Ken's head whirled. He was sure he couldn't be there. But how could he not be there? Wasn't he a part of Ken himself?

The purple haired boy was about to say something when a voice called him out his confusion. He swirled around and saw Miyako and Hikari running frantically toward him, with Gatomon and Hawkmon at their sides.

"…Toys!" Exclaimed the Kaiser, his voice coloring whit a hint of delight.

"W-What…?" Ken couldn't believe it. Did the Kaiser…did *him* just called his friends *toys*?!

The sound of the Kaiser's hands clapping enthusiastically resounded in the little wood and Ken found his eyes jumping around in search of the noise's source.

"New toys for me!" The Kaiser repeated, literally paralyzing Ken. Widening his eyes, the astonished boy slowly slid down until he was sitting on the grassy ground. As the wind rose to carry away the Kaiser's glacial sneer, he heaved a shaky sigh, closing his eyes and tilting his head up. He held his breath until he almost lost consciousness. He gasped for breath only when the soft voice startled him.

"Ken…?"

He looked up into a pair of soft hazel eyes in a heart shaped face framed by short brown hair.

"…Hi-Hikari…" Ken managed in a breath, his heart racing whit fear.

Fear to be forced to hurt his own friends. His *only* friends.

"Are you okay?" She asked, her voice filled whit pure concern as she moved her hand to rest on top of Ken's. He jerked it away from her, looking at her face wide-eyed. She just blinked before she sat down on the ground beside him.

"Something happened?" He shook his head whit force. Then looked up at Miyako who was kneeling down next to him.

"You know…you can tell us, Ken…" she murmured as she tentatively moved her hand toward Ken's shacking shoulder.

"DON'T YOU DARE TO TOUCH HIM, YOU PATETIC LITTLE LASS!" The voice shouted in rage, causing Miyako's hand to jerk away. The three digidestined looked up at once, Ken both amused and shocked that they had heard *him* as well as he did.

Wasn't *he* supposed to be only a voice in his head??

"…Who…?" Miyako tried, while Hikari moved one hand toward Ken.

"DON'T EVEN TRY IT, LITTLE BITCH!" The Digimon Emperor stepped from behind a tree and glared at the three digidestined through his shades. "If you lay a hand on him, I swear you'll regret the day you were born." he hissed quietly.

"K-Kaiser…?" Hikari was the only one with enough strength to talk.

"The one and only…" he grinned, strangely full of himself. Both Miyako and Hikari's shocked looks laid on Ken, as he looked bewildered up at the one in front of him.

The hair, the cloak, the boots, the whip, the shades…that was *him*!!! Without questions!!! Even if he was immersed in the deep shadows of the night, Ken couldn't stop from recognizing the one in front of him as the Digimon Kaiser. The one he had seen reflected in the mirror for who-knows-how-long after he had discovered the digital universe.

"K-Kaiser…" Ken gulped tensely.

"Ken…" he grinned as he walked toward the purple haired boy slowly. Ken blinked up at him. Saying he was confused meant putting it lightly. He was bemused beyond words. His usually lucid brain was blurred and he couldn't even think.

Ken shook his head fiercely, freeing himself from the dizzy feeling.

"You! What are you doing here? You don't exist! You were only a part of my being…a part I erased! I erased you myself!" He stood up and backed away from his former old self.

"You did, didn't you…?"

Ken frowned slightly. So, was the Kaiser a ghost? He immediately discarded the idea, since he didn't believe in that sort of things. He fell deeper in his thoughts as the previous wave of anger passed, leaving him confused once again. He was so lost in thought he didn't notice the Kaiser had walked closer till he felt his hands cup his chin. Ken looked up but didn't moved away form the Kaiser's hand.

There was…"something" about his touch.

It was so… special.

Words couldn't describe it.

Ken felt something was happening inside his heart and mind. He quickly jerked away as the Kaiser spoke again.

"So perfect, so flawless…it's a shame I need to kill you to fully have him…" It felt as if icy water had been splashed on him.

"W-what…?"

The Kaiser stepped back, his cloak dancing gracefully around his tiny body. "You really don't understand, do you?" The Kaiser blinked and a grin played on his lips as a confused look appeared on Ken's face. "You can be a genius Ichijouji, but you're pretty dense when it comes to feelings, uh?" this took Ken aback, and he could only blink, just as Miyako and Hikari. The two girls couldn't even move as the two "Ken" faced off.

The Kaiser shook his head, his breath coming out his lips in a resigned sigh. Then he looked up at Ken, the force held in his eyes making the purple haired boy stumble backward.

"I'll have the courage to take what you always wanted Ichijouji." He stated quietly. "What don't even you yourself *know* you want." Then he smirked and turned away walking slowly toward the direction he came from. As he reached a big tree he stopped and swirled around, leaning against it whit his arms folded across his chest. "Who is missing right now, 'genius'?"

Ken didn't even need to turn around. "Daisuke…" he whispered. How easily the name slid from Ken's lips! Daisuke wasn't even the only one missing, but then his name came out without hesitation, without a second thought. It seemed that Ken knew what – who-- the Kaiser wanted, cause…

Cause he wanted it –him—too?

No.

Ken was sure of it.

He couldn't want Daisuke.

He just couldn't.

It was the Kaiser that wanted him.

Not Ken.

That couldn't be.

Ken was totally confused. Sure, he and Davis spent a lot of time together, sure they were close, but to say he *wanted* him?

Ken bit his bottom lip sheepishly at the sound of the Kaiser's voice hissing something to him.

"Let's play a little game Ichijouji" Ken was starting to hate the venom-filled way the Kaiser said it.

When Ken looked up he found that the Kaiser had somehow climbed up on of the branches of the old tree and was looking down at Ken whit great interest. The bearer of the crest of kindness looked at the evil tyrant into the eyes.

Were them *his* eyes? *Ken's*eyes?

No…they weren't…

Those eyes were completely different form his own…

They were the Kaiser's eyes.

Two deep pools that held mysterious dark secrets as bright holy truths.

Ken started to drown into those depths and saw himself looking back at him whit tens of emotions held back.

Cold emotions like rage and anger, which didn't belong there, Ken noticed.

And warmer ones like longing and hope, which didn't belong there either.

What was the truth behind those eyes? Who was the soul hidden behind the heavy shades? Where did he belong? Could really something so beautiful belong to the darkness?

Or maybe was the darkness that belonged to him? Maybe wasn't the boy the one who has been made for the shadows…maybe the shadows, the night, Darkness itself has been made only to belong to him. Only to be with him and hug him in its fateful hands.

To rock and protect him from the dawn to the sunset, hiding him from the moment the mist of morning appeared till the time when the moon kissed the sky, when the young spirit could fly free.

It was the Kaiser's voice that snapped Ken out his intent staring.

"Let's play a little game…the one who will reach him first, will have him." Then he laughed and vanished in the deep vegetation, his cold sneer resounding in the air.

He had a good reason to laugh thought, cause for how fast they could be to find Daisuke, they could never be faster than him since he already had made his Daisuke's mind, soul, heart and body.

* * * * *

Daisuke's eyes fluttered open. He moaned softly as he tried unsuccessfully to drift back into sleep, to reach again the place where he could be with what he needed. Squinting his eyes shut before blink them groggily, Daisuke notice there was *something* above him. When his chocolate brown eyes focused, he recognized the sparkling ones which were looking down at him with care and amusement.

"…What the hell am I doing whit my head on your lap?" Daisuke asked after the situation sank fully in his still groggy brain.

The eyes above him sparkled even more as he spoke: "Gee…happy to see you too, Daisuke…" he teased.

Feeling a lot better but still kind of tired, Daisuke sat up and as he did, he discovered he was in a large clearing. As far as eyes could see there were rainbow colored flowers, whispering softly in the tender breeze. Daisuke blinked slowly his eyes, unable to believe he wasn't still in his dream. Unconsciously running a hand trough the silky grass, Daisuke plucked a flower and brought it to his nose.

Its fragrance filled his nose with an inebriating scent. Shifting his eyes trough the field of flowers, tens of emotions ran trough his soul, and Daisuke couldn't deny this unfamiliar corner of the digital world resembled sensibly the place in his dreams.

Slightly turning his head, Daisuke smiled and turned his attention fully to his savior, who was still smiling at him, the dawn's sunlight making his eyes sparkling.

"I think you saved me, ne?" the other boy shrugged and Daisuke, still caught in the dreamy sight's spell, replied in his softest voice: "Thank you…thank you a lot, Takeru…"

Takeru was taken aback.

He had never seen a smile so gentle on that dark face... Takeru didn't think those lips could really twitch in something different from goofy grins or proud smirks…he remained silent as he noticed the mesmerizing way Daisuke's eyes were sparkling. There were something about the boy in front of him that wasn't quiet normal…he couldn't put his fingers on it, but he *knew* something was definitely wrong whit the tan skinned boy.

Daisuke was the one to break the eye contact as he looked around in search of the others.

"We've been separated during the journey…do you remember that strange wave?" Daisuke nodded slowly as he brought his attention back to the blonde. "I landed in a lake" The blonde boy trailed off when he noticed the other boy was starting to laugh. "AT LEAST IT DIDN'T TOOK ME THE WHOLE NIGHT TO RECOVER!!" he pointed, flushed. Daisuke managed to turn his laugh into a cough and waved his hand. "Anyway when I came out of the lake…" Daisuke chocked out a little and Takeru couldn't stop himself from flashing him a murderous glare, which immediately calmed the goggled boy. "I wandered around till I found Iori…he had landed on a rock…one of his arm is covered in scratches and he have a couple of bruises, but he'll survive." Daisuke didn't even try to hide his sigh of relief and then turned toward Takeru.

"And the others?" the blonde shrugged.

"I've been able to find only you…here, in this field some hours ago…" then a smirk appeared on his lips. "…you didn't seem willingly to awake, Dai…what were you dreaming of?" Daisuke blushed and held his breath.

"I…I…I…" he stuttered, searching for a good excuse. "I…uhm…I…" 

"Were you dreaming of Hikari-chan?"

"NO!" he cried, before even realize it "I mean…yeah, sure…who-who wouldn't?" he smiled nervously and tried to stood up. As he was on his feet, Daisuke patted his clothes to clean them and looked down to a blinking Takeru. "What?"

"Are you all right?" Daisuke nodded and Takeru hurried to explain. "I mean, no aftershocks of the landing?" Daisuke's eyes grew wide as he replied whit a tiny 'no'.

"Maybe the flowers attenuated my fall…"

"I don't think so…" Iori walked up to the two slight older boys, his arms loose at his sides. "When we found you…you were standing perfectly still…with your arms along your sides and your legs slightly parted…" he paused as he noticed the look of confusion on the two boys' faces. "Someone laid you there." He stated quietly.

=========================================

To be continued in part 02: Acceptance 

** **

**So? What do you think?? Do I need a life?? Well…uhm…maybe ^.^;;**


	2. Shattered Mirror - part 2 - Acceptance

** **

**All right let's go to the less funny part of writing a fic…the DISCLAIMERS!!! -_-;; **

**I *hate* disclaimers!!!! **

**Digimon does not belong to me (even though I wish it did! Then I'll change the ending and make Ken marry Dai ::nods::) It belongs to Toei and the other real owners. **

** **

**Now go on with the fic!!! Enjoy!(PLEASE R+R!!!) **

** **

## Shattered mirror 

## Part 02 – Acceptance 

The sun had set the sky on fire. The sky, dark and livid until a few moments ago, was now of a brilliant red tone, with lilac and velvet azure brush-strokes embellishing it. 

Usually, that's the colour the sky turns to when the sun sets, descending toward the horizon to grace it with a sweet kiss, but to the purple haired boy who was darting frantically trough the knee-length grass the last of his concerns was how bizarre this dawn was.He surely heard the roar of the wind echoing inside his ears and the cries of the people calling at him from behind. But he couldn't see anything, since his mind was focused on a single face. 

Or maybe two. 

Daisuke's tan skinned, smiling face. 

And the Kaiser's mysterious one. 

There was something… 

Something in the way the Kaiser looked at him…the way he touched him…Ken couldn't put his fingers on it, but he *knew* the Kaiser had something in his mind. 

Something other than kill him and take Daisuke, that's it. 

Ken bit his bottom lips with a force that nearly made it bleed, and balled his hands in bewilderment. 

Looking at the Kaiser had made the strangest and most incomprehensible feeling run trough his body. The Kaiser was him and yet he wasn't. They were identical and yet radically different. The impression he got was the one to look at his image reflected by shattered mirror. 

That's what the Kaiser was. The reflection in a broken mirror. Billion of shining fragments, little shapes of light, dancing and turning in a kaleidoscope of lights and colors. The light he held was mesmerizing and yet scaring in a way. It was hypnotic. It was able to drown you in a sweet oblivion.

But it –he– was scary.

Because the siren spell he was able cast on you, drifted you down in an oblivion as sweet as poison.

And equally mortal.

The chilly air of the first hours of the day stung his eyes and his chest throbbed with every step he took, but he was past caring. He didn't know how and he didn't know why, but deep inside he knew that let the Kaiser reach Daisuke would lead them to something terrible.

His whole body trembled for a fear that could no longer be denied, and he was just dimly aware that the voices of behind him had intensified into screams. 

Suddenly a hand clasped his shoulder and he was forced to turn around and look in the deep pools of brown which were looking at him with concern and a bit of anger. 

"Ken…" the brunette panted, obviously out of breath. "Dear God, Ken! Slow down!"

"Ken!" The lavender haired girl who had jogged up to his side, pleaded. "We've to take a rest! We ran for the whole night!"

"Miyako is right, Ken!" the brunette at her side agreed. "We are too tired to go on!!" She panted and swallowed, reluctantly freeing Ken from her grasp. "Besides, what we'll get out of it, apart from black rings around our eyes and a tiredness which will only make us more vulnerable?!" she paused. "We don't even know *where* to search, Ken."

Ken roughly turned away and exhaled deeply, willing his heart to slow down its frantic pace."We've to…hurry up…and find him…" He panted, realizing all of a sudden that he was out of breath. "He is in danger…"

"How do you…" Miyako panted, "know…he is…his…target??" she sighed, happy that the air in her lungs had been enough to articulate a complete statement.

Ken gritted his teeth and exhaled sharply trough his grinned teeth. He couldn't answer her question, mainly because he'd been asking himself theexact same thing over and over without come out with an answer. He didn't know how or why he knew who the Kaiser wanted was Daisuke…he just did. And he refused to believe he knew it because he wanted him too. 

That_couldn't_be. 

The purple haired boy looked around and his heart stopped when his gaze fell on the endless field of blue flowers at the bottom of the little cliff where he was standing. Ken held his breath as he listened carefully at the sound of his heart. 

It hadn't stopped. 

It was beating at an unusual quick pace and a second, equal happy sound, was echoing it. 

Tu-tum. 

Tu-tum. 

Tu-tum. 

He closed his eyes and then opened them…

Two hearts. 

There were two hearts beating inside his chest. 

His own and the one of… 

"DAISUKE!!" he cried out.The fear and urgency had dissolved into pure joy. He took in a deep breath and smiled, before speed up forward.

Miyako and Hikari heard his cry and swirled around just in time to see Ken run toward the edge of the little cliff and jump.

"KEN!"

"I can't watch!" Hikari cried as she slammed her hands over her face.

"KEN!!!!!!" Miyako shrieked, running over the same spot and stared with wide eyes over the edge of the cliff. Then she whirled around and grasped Hikari's wrist in her hand. "C'mon!!" she yelled.

"C'mon?!" Hikari cried as she felt herself fall down.

Over the cliff.

"Woah!!!" Hikari squeaked as she landed at the bottom of the cliff.

"Owwwww! Hikari, get off of me!!" Miyako whimpered, gasping for air. 

"Sorry!" She replied as she tried to stand up. "Ah! Gatomon! Stop clinging onto my shirt and get of!"

"I will as soon as *he* gets off of me!" she hissed back. "HAWKMON MOVE!"

"Sorry…" he offered weakly as he promptly jumped off the big heap they landed into.

Gatomon jumped down Hikari's back and the brunette quickly helped the poor Miyako up to her feet. "Owowowowow…" she moaned. "It's time for you all to go on a diet!!!"

"EHY!" Gatomon swirled toward her, evidently pissed.

"Uhm…sorry Miyako, but *you* are the one who dragged us over the cliff…" Hikari whispered, blushing slightly.

"I know, I know…" she waved, while looking around for Ken.

The purple haired boy was standing still a few meters in front of them, his cheeks flushed and his eyes sparkling. The soft breeze was playing with his silky hair, whipping soft locks of purple around his face. How different he was now from the worried, tensed boy he has been until then! All his being radiated a wave of happiness that contrasted with his previous dark mood as black ink on a snowy white page.

"Ken?"

He didn't even turn as he restarted to run.

"Ow…" Miyako rolled her eyes and tilted her head up. "Does he *ever* get tired to run??"

"Oh well…" Sighed Hikari at her side. "What are we waiting for?"

* * * * *

The three digidestined had spent the rest of night just looking at each other. It was when the first sunlight leaked lazily from behind the blue mountains, visible in the close distance, that one of them eventually shattered the silence, trying to understand what had happened to the cinnamon haired boy who was standing front of him.

"So…" Takeru licked his lips. "You're not harmed?" the other replied with a slight toss of his head. "I see…"

Takeru and Iori exchanged a glance, while Daisuke nibbled his upper lip. Beside him, the younger digidestined delicately cleared his throat before speaking:

"You see…that means…"

Daisuke's face paled visibly, and he took a step backward. "NO ONE TOOK ME THERE!"

"Woha!" Iori jumped as soon as he heard his friend's yell. "Take it easy, Dai…it was just a hypothesis…"

A flash of guilt rippled Daisuke's eyes, suddenly wide. He didn't understand *why* he was reacting like this, but he couldn't stop himself from doing it.

"And a very likely one…" he spoke up quietly, running a hand through his spiky brown hair. "I know it's strange…and I'm not saying that it isn't but…I__I'm__I can't believe someone actually took me there…it's so…weird…It…is…impossible and…I mean, only me…and then *who* could do that… it just got to me…you understand…?" He trailed off, realizing that he was babbling.

Iori arched slowly an eyebrow and Takeru blinked.

"Ehy" the blonde said. "It's okay."

"But I…"

"DAISUKE!!!!!!!!!!!"

Daisuke's heart stopped.

No.

To be honest it didn't stop, but started to beat at unison with another.

Tu-tum.

Together.

Tu-tum.

At the same rate.

Tu-tum. 

…Ken. 

Daisuke swirled around and his eyes widened as he saw Ken. The purple haired boy stopped for a moment, letting the soft breeze blowing between them to play with his hair again. Then he took a step forward and then another, and another, walking toward him hesitantly, as if in a dream.

"Daisuke…" he breathed, as if afraid that speaking too loud would scare him away.

"Ken?"

"Daisuke!!!!"

"KEN!" they started to run toward each other. It was like a dream and a sense of déjà vu caught Daisuke in a sudden grasp. The wind was blowing softly, dancing gently blue petal around them. The sun shone down at him, dandling him in soft warmth and clothing each blade of green grass with a dress of gold. Daisuke grinned, with a rather happy blush coloring his cheeks as he opened his arms and…

"DDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAISUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The lavender haired girl threw her arms around Daisuke's neck, and he had to spin her around in attempt to not fall backward. Then, after she was settled down on the ground, she jerked up her thumb. "YOU'RE ALL RIGHT!!! WE DID IT!!!" 

"Miyako?!"

"Daisuke!"

"Uh?" Daisuke looked up only to see Hikari running full force toward him. She gave a whoop of joy before gave him a brief hug. "We did it!!" she squealed, clapping happily her hands. "We have been the first to find you!! We won!!!"

"…won?" Daisuke was a little confused…

"We had to find you before the Kaiser or he would have done God-knows-what to you." Miyako blurted out in high speed.

"The Kaiser??" Iori asked as he jogged up at Daisuke's side. "But…" he raised tentatively a finger toward Ken, but Hikari shook her head.

"Ken and the Kaiser are two separate entities now…"

"WHAT?!" Takeru cried as he placed a hand on her shoulder. She nodded and hurried to explain everything.

* * * * *

"So that's what happened." Concluded Hikari. During the not-too-brief explanation, the six Chosen and the two Digimon sat down in a circle. She looked up at the boy in front of her trough her eyelashes. As she get a glimpse of Daisuke's face her eyes widened, but she kept her head down. Her eyes darted around and she noticed how Iori and Takeru looked worried, too. She jerked her head upwards, so that it was facing Daisuke's, and blinked as she saw how the color seemed to have dried from Daisuke's cheeks.

"Daisuke?"

He turned toward Iori as begging him to say "no", but he nodded, speechless. Takeru slammed his palm against his mouth, murmuring something. Daisuke went even paler and suddenly jerked up on his feet. He swirled around and took a few steps forward, his breath quickening with worry.

The air suddenly went tense and thick with unspoken questions, but no one dared to ask them. The one around which all the questions revolved was literally paralyzed. Silent, wide eyed and covered with cold sweet he couldn't stop from mouthing silently incoherent words.

"No…" he suddenly spoke softly, shattering the stillness. He turned around and gave his friends a searching look, trying to decipher the truth in Hikari's words. His eyes shifted toward Iori. "We've no proofs…"

The younger boy shifted and nodded slightly, "Yes but…" he swallowed, looking away from the redhead "but we have nothing to undermine it…"

The expression on the tan face, an expression where a small glint of hope hadn't been killed by the fear, turned to a dark discomfort. He fell down on his knees, uncoordinatedly, gracelessly. Just as a broken doll threw carelessly on the floor.

Where was the good on denying it?

Deep inside he *knew* that was true.

Scary, helplessly, cruelly true.

"Daisuke?" Miyako moved closer. "You all right?"

"He won."

"What?" Miyako's hand, which was traveling tentatively toward Daisuke's shoulder, jerked backward as he spoke.

"The Kaiser…" he repeated. "He…won." He looked up, looking first at Kari and then at Miyako. "He reached me first." His gaze fell on Ken then. "Am I…his, now?"

Ken's eyes grew wide.He went pale and he was grateful he was already on the ground or else the tremble at his knees would have made him fall down. His mouth opened in utter shock, but nothing came out. He moved his lips, mouthing something, but he couldn't let his voice leave his mouth.

Daisuke was *his*.

Daisuke belonged to the *Kaiser* now.

"No…" he managed in a breath, his voice broke and weak. "No…" he repeated as he shook slowly his head, feeling the tears build up in his eyes.

"Am I HIS??" Daisuke cried louder as he crawled on all four toward Ken. The purple haired boy shook his head, covering his ears with his palm.

"I…I…I…" 

"I am…am I not…?" Daisuke looked up at Ken, eyes wide and shining with tears. Ken shook his head and his hands slowly fell from over his ears. He looked down, incapable to bare Daisuke's look, but the tan skinned boy just looked down at the soft grass below. "DAMN" he shouted, pouncing the ground. "This isn't fair!!!!" he lowered himself down to the ground, his fingers lacing into the moss beneath. "How can I be his…? What did he do to me…?"

"Daisuke, I…" Ken looked up at his friend. Then, on instinct, he took the other boy in his arms, gently dandling him. "We won't let him take you, Daisuke…" Daisuke couldn't help himself from letting go of the moss and moving his arms slowly around Ken. "We'll protect you…" he whispered against Daisuke's neck, his lips brushing slightly the amber skinned earlobe as he did.

Daisuke's chocolate brown eyes sprung open in shock.

Wh-What is he doing?

Ken's hug tightened, pressuring their bodies closer together. His head moved up and his lips ran over his hair, and soon soft fingers were entangled in the brown spikes.

Daisuke's head jerked up and leaned backward, so that he could take a good look of Ken.

"K-Ken…?"

He was afraid.

The bearer of the crest of Courage was *afraid*. This Ken in front of him scared him more than anything. Even the idea to fight the Kaiser again was less scary. Because he had never seen Ken's eyes flash this way, ripple with this emotion he still couldn't name. Daisuke went weightless, falling backward, still encircled by Ken's arm. He cupped gently a hand around Daisuke's now relatively red cheek and moved closer, still whispering.

"We'll protect you Daisuke…" His other hand slipped noiselessly around his waist.

"I…I…I…" Daisuke's voice had come out as an hoarse whisper. "I…"

Ken stared hard into his eyes as he slowly, nearly unconsciously, leaned down.

"We'll protect you…" he pulled closer until their faces were inches apart. His grip tightened around Daisuke's waist and their breath were dancing over each other's lips.

"I…I…" Daisuke repeated breathlessly. Ken slowly leaned towards him and Daisuke closed his eyes, feeling his heart speed up in his chest, thumping against Ken's chest, at unison with his own heart.

"Oh, no…I don't think so…" The Kaiser's voice resounded, chilly and limpid in the morning air, forcing Daisuke's eyes open. 

The heart suddenly trembled. Ken and Daisuke immediately jumped apart. Daisuke fell back with a thud and a yelp and Ken sprang to his feet, wide-eyed and looking like he wasn't aware of was about to happen moments earlier. The earthquake grew stronger and all of a sudden at the center of the flower field a pillar of electricity, boiling and agitated, rose up, destroying everything close around, and causing a tempest of blue petals to whirl around it. The intensity of the brilliant light was unbearable, blue and green bows of lights streaming outwards as skeletal fingers in search of something to held to. The Digidestined covered their faces, backing away and then blinked as they noticed a *huge* shape was slowly looming inside the brightness.

  
The light started to slowly fade away as the dark shadow regally flew out it. It was a digimon, a some kind of armored dragon. And it was extremely huge. It covered the bight sun, sending a dark sheet to envelop the digidestined in its folds. The blue dragon landed gracelessly, and his huge wings fan around his body. He leisurely moved on all four toward Daisuke and Ken's present location. His long, white, bat-like wings trembling softly on his back. His sharp, glowing eyes narrowed and his black armor shined as the snowy sparks, remains of the column of electricity, ran upon it.

He looked up and grinned at Daisuke. All the boy could manage was a strangled gulp.

There was something about the digimon that caught his attention. He was special somehow, but Daisuke didn't know why. Part of him wanted to step closer and gaze into those eyes he knew would be red. Another part of him wanted to run away and hide from the attacks he knew to be mortal. The glow in the digimon's eyes diminished and Daisuke was now looking into those eyes he knew to be ruby even before look at them. 

His heart fluttered. 

Scared, he pressed a sweaty palm against his chest. Daisuke looked up at the digimon and found that he was laughing, a sound almost similar to a growl. He seized Daisuke's body and advanced slowly. It started to thunder in the sky and the world started spinning out of control in front of Daisuke's eyes. He started to pant and bright flashed appeared in front of his face.

Ken screamed and the others let out worried cries as Daisuke crumpled to the floor. His chocolate brown eyes rolled back and his body shuddered. He was gasping for breath.

"Daisuke!" Ken cried as he rushed toward his side. "Daisuke!!" He removed a strand of brown hair from his forehead and looked straight in his eyes. "Daisuke! Daisuke, what's wrong?" He shook him gently "Daisuke?? Daisuke can you hear me??" he shook him harder, but Daisuke didn't react. His eyes were open, but he seemed completely oblivious of Ken hovering above him. His body shivered, and to warm him, Ken carefully cradled his head in his lap and stroked his hair, while keeping on calling him. "You…" he hissed as he looked up at the digimon before him. "What did you do to him?? Who are you??"

"That's something for me to know and for you to find out…" he murmured, beating leisurely his wings. "Or more accurately it's for *them* to find out. You should know who I am."

"I…?" Ken blinked, taken aback.

"C'mon…doesn't my voice ring any bell to you?" Ken blinked again, a feeling of déjà vu ringing in the back of his mind. But this time, the one in front of him wasn't human…he was a digimon…so…

"The digimon Kaiser's digimon…" the huge creature bowed slightly as to let the former Emperor know he was right.

"Who?" Ken unconsciously wrapped his arms around himself "Who are you? Where is Wormmon??"

"Wormmon…" he sighed and then blinked. "Somewhere in that forest…if he survived my attack…"

"WORMMON!"

"And he wasn't alone…he was with some digimon you should know very well…they were searching for you all…" he paused and slowly restarted walking toward the two of them. "Give him to me."

"Never!!" The digimon suddenly lunged forward and butted Ken with his head. He jerked backwards and Daisuke's head fell from his lap to thump on the grassy floor. Ken tried to crawl back to him, but the digimon placed between them. The two glared at each other until a croaky noise coming from Daisuke caught the armored dragon's attention. He cocked his head to one side and took a narrow-eyed look at Daisuke's red face as he let a ragged noise surge from deep within his throat. Daisuke arched his back, whipping his head backside, his mouth open and moving quickly. He was gasping for breath now. His body went into convulsions and his friends looked at him with pure terror showed over their faces.

"Daisuke!!" Hikari cried as she too tried to reach him. The huge digimon turned toward her and glared at her like a snake that is glaring at his prey. Hikari stopped, frozen dead in her track. She could stop the shiver that ran down her spine as she took a trembling step backward.

"Ga…Gatomon!" She cried, wrapping her arms around her body in a gesture similar as the one scared animal made to look littler. The cat-like digimon leaped forward, her eyes narrowed and her mouth open to show her sharp teeth.

"Gatomon digivol…"

"NO GATOMON!" Taken by surprise, the cat interrupter her digivolution and swirled around, to see Hawkmon ran frantically toward her.

"Uh?"

"We' need the jogress shinka!!" he yelled. "Hawkmon digivolve to…Aquillamon!!!"

The two digimon nodded at each other as the sprinted forward in unison.

"Gatomon!"

"Aquillamon!!"

"JOGRESS SHINKA!!"

"Silphymon!"

The semi-anthropomorphous Digimon darted forward, in his hands a purple beams of energy, which looked like some strange kind of power, was in the process of forming. The evil digimon growled quietly at the sigh and jumped up in the air, never losing his majesty. His white wings bated slowly at his sides and he gave his head an annoyed toss, narrowing his glassy ruby eyes. Silphymon's attack shifted from one hand to another and he let the power twisting in the fireball reach its limit before cup both his hands around it and fire it. 

The armored dragon dodged easily the attack, following it with his eyes as it flew past him and hit the ground. Then he looked down again and his glassy ruby drifting eyes met Daisuke's wide open and blank ones. He growled, narrowing his eyes into two tiny slides, from which anger leaked down copiously.

He rushed toward Daisuke's stiff body full speed, but he came to a stretch halt as the insolent attack of purple energy dared to caress his side.   
  


He looked down at the foolish digimon and he gritted his teeth. He screeched loudly as he turned to fully face him. His wings stopped to move but he didn't land. His eyes widened as the hot liquid bubble out of his throatgrow in his mouth.He molded it quickly to form almost a ballhe shot it out of his mouth. White and warm and bright, it flipped out his wide-open mouth, rushing at incredible speed directly toward the digidestined. His eyes grew even wider as more balls of boiling energy built up in his mouth and quickly darted toward the ground. With an amazing speed. 

They spheres of white energy jumped and leaped toward them. Ken, who was running toward Daisuke, was forced to stop by the mortal rain and so was Kari. Takeru wrapped his arms protectively above his head and Iori fell backward, raising a hand in front of his face. He was fortunate he had enough rapidity to roll out of the way of a sphere that was about to pounce on him.

"Woah!!!" he cried while choking and panting.

Selphymon's body shook violently as he shot five that were starting to gang up on him and the digidestined. 

"Damn you!" He yelled as he realized he was in the process of running out of energy. 

Daisuke gasped again, a strangled, low moan escaping his now purple lips as he did. His body stiffened as a dim dark mist surrounded him like a fine sheet. Ken screamed again as Daisuke's head lolled to one side and his body went limp, his lips slightly parted and his eyes open. The armored dragon growled loudly, his glowing eyes going dim. The dragon immediately stopped his attack and his head jerked backward toward Daisuke's now completely still body. He growled and leaped upward, throwing a last ball of energy to Selphymon in order to stop him for following. 

He was too exhausted , though and as he scrambled to the ground he digivolved back into a panting Hawkmon and a sweating and muttering Gatomon.

Ken slowly dared to open his eyes, only to squirt them a second later. White, everything was white. He tried again, blinking rapidly to ease the pain the brilliant light caused to his purple orbs. His gaze shifted around. He could see nothing.

Nothing except…

"Daisuke!" Ken yelped as he scrambled up to his feet, darting toward the brown haired boy.

Kari's eyes hut open and she watched Ken as his figure quickly ran past her into the now fading light. Light, too much light… everywhere was white. Her gaze moved from his back to the figure that was lying motionless on the ground…as if he was dead. Shoving that thought aside, the brunette swept up to her feet and hurriedly followed Ken.

The purple haired boy knelt beside his tan skinned friend and lifted gently his head. He felt his eyes stinging as he slowly let his fingers comb through the brown spikes and then wander down to take his hand. 

It was icy cold. 

And he wasn't moving. 

No... he can't be… Ken blinked quickly, not even able to *think* that. After swallowing, he tried calling his name... 

"Daisuke?" 

Nothing. 

He swallowed again. "Da-Daisuke…?" 

Again he received no reply. 

No ... oh, please, NO!!! 

He hesitantly tried again, shocking his cold body lightly. "Dai?" 

Nothing.

Not even a twitch.

"Daisuke…" a soft voice whispered gently.  
  
Ken cocked his head sideways at the sound of Kari's voice and saw her came slowly towards him.

Crying.

She peered over his shoulder and looked down at Daisuke.

"Dai, wake up…" she smiled. "Come on…"

Ken tentatively placed his hand over his heart...

Nothing.

No, wait…

He felt Daisuke's heart beating in…*his* chest. Looking down he squeezed a little harder Daisuke's hand.

It was beginning to warm…

"Daisuke?"

The cinnamon haired boy shifted a little, rewarding Ken with a slight moan. His eyes fluttered open and he gazed up at Ken with misty eyes.

"…Ken…?" his eyes went off focus as he fainted again. "…my…dream…"

=========================================

To be continued in part 03: Encounter 

** **

**::eyes swirling:: Peww…I did it…@_@ This was supposed to be *longer*, though…but I didn't think make this chapter longer could be of any good…-_-;; I'm sorry if maybe like this the title "Acceptance" doesn't fit the chapter too well…the only things that Dai accept is the fact the Kaiser found him first…@_@ **

**In my original idea he had to accept *something else* at the end of this chapter…but I had to divide it in two… **

**As always my fingers started typing following their own will and I ended up adding that scene with Ken and Dai almost kissing…a scene which wasn't supposed to be *there* ::groans:: -_-;; **

** **

**And then I'm sorry it sorts of resemble another fic of mine where… ::****Daisuke quickly shut her mouth closed with a hand**:: 

**Ken = Are you crazy?? Do you want to give away your fic like this?? **

**Nemesi-chan = ****MMPH!!!! MMPH!!! MMMMMMMPH!!!!!!! ::shakes her head::**** **

**Daisuke = Will you stay quiet if I'll let you go? **

**Nemesi-chan = ****MMPH!!!! ****MMPH!!! MMMMMMMPH!!!!!!! ::nods::**** **

**Daisuke = Good ::releases her:: **

**Nemesi-chan = ::gasps for air:: Peww…Anyway, minna-san! Thank you for reading and s****ee ya in the next chapter!!!! ^_^ **

** **

**Ken = And please let us know what you think! **

** **

**All = Ja-ne!!!! **

** **

    


	3. Shattered Mirror - part 3 - Encounter

**Oooops…It was coming out too big to put in one single chapter ::goes into shock:: I can't believe it...I get carried away! It probably won't happen again!!! ::notices how everyone is staring at her:: Okay, okay…Probably it *will* happen again…-_-;; It happens very often that my fingers start typing following their own will and completely ignoring my brain!!! _ Please forgive me. Eh-eh... ::blushes:: so, here it comes chapter 03 –or better the second half of chapter 02—of "Shattered mirror". **

**I'm disappointed the second chapter didn't come out as good as the first one, but this get better…^_^ It think that, so far, this is my favorite chapter!!! ::grins:: I can't help but like it!!! ^_^ **

** **

**Daisuke and Ken = ::gets big eyes:: O_O you usually don't praise your own work!!!! **

** **

**Nemesi-chan = The-eh…^_^ I can't help my self…Yes, I definitely *like* this chapter…it's nothing special, but I still like it! I shouldn't be the one to judge my own work, though… **

** **

**Oh! One last think…I think I should buy a brand new brain, considering how I almost forgot ((and in the second chapter I did! o.O)) to say this fic is dedicated to Hotaru!!! A nice friend, who is always kind and ready to help!!! ::waves happily:: Hi, Hotaru!!! **

** **

**Now, let's go on with the fic!!! I hope you'll enjoy this and let me know what you think!!!! **

## ** **

## Shattered mirror 

## Part 03 – Encounter 

Takeru creeped to Daisuke's side and watched in awe the way his chest was raising and falling rhythmically. The redhead was alive but unconscious. And they had to get him back to the real world, where they could take care of him. Cure him.

The blonde boy knelt slowly beside Ken and gently brushed Daisuke's hair from his face.

"We've to take him back to the real world." He whispered as he slowly moved his arms around Daisuke and pulled him away from Ken's warm embrace. "I'll take care of it."

Hikari turned to see Takeru pick their leader up carefully. He carried him so gently…it was as if he was afraid he might break. He was looking at him now with an intensity that made her shiver, and a concern that caught her off-guard. She blinked her soft brown eyes rapidly as her gaze met Daisuke's face.

The tan skinned boy looked so peaceful.

Nearly…happy.

Hikari blinked a few times, her gaze focused on the smile that played softly on his lips. She had never seen the boy so happy, so content, so…so…

She shook her head, short locks of brown whipping around her face, trying to suppress the feeling that she felt whenever she looked over at Daisuke's sleeping face. She didn't know how to describe it. It was like the air around him trembled for the soft waves of happiness radiating from his whole frame. As if, whatever the Kaiser had done to him to make him his was…

Right.

"No!" Hikari cried out, gripping the soft grass in her slender fingers. It couldn't be *right*! Whatever he had done to him, it should have been horrible! Terrifying! Disgusting!

But then, if that made Daisuke happy…

She shook her head again, squirting her eyes closed. Suddenly, there was a hand on her shoulder. She flinched and quickly turned to find the owner of that hand staring at her, wide green eyes rippling with confusion.

"Hikari…?"

The girl shook quickly her head, her lips curving in a small smile "I'm all right Iori-kun…"

"But…" She completely ignored him as her eyes traveled again toward Takeru and the tan skinned boy in his arms. She gritted her teeth, a small cringing sound that startled even her. Shacking her head once again, Hikari slowly rose up, looking back at a still frowning Ken.

He didn't know of the smile that had formed on Daisuke's tan features when he fell unconscious.

She slowly made her way toward Takeru, with Gatomon elegantly stepping at her side.

"Miyako?" the blonde boy suddenly stopped and turned toward his right, gazing questioningly at the lavender haired girl jog up at his side. "We need to find our digimon…"

"Me and Hawkmon can take care of it!" She winked at him and turned toward Hikari. "The only digimon here are ours, Hikari…"

"I'm coming." She nodded, taking few steps toward the other girl. "Take care of Daisuke." She called as she slowly made her way toward the little forest visible in the close distance. Takeru nodded absently and looked down at Daisuke with soft eyes.

Ken slowly rose from the grassy ground and looked deeply at his blonde companion. He wanted to carry Daisuke but he didn't want to challenge Takeru for the right. He sighed softly, taking hesitant steps toward the pair.

"Let's go…" he murmured as he walked past the two and his soft voice made Takeru's head jerk up.

* * * * *

Hikari hopped out the digiport elegantly, nearly surprised they hadn't landed on a big heap as always. "Ehy, Miyako…" she turned and looked at Miyako, who was trying to keep two over-worried digimon in her arms.

"Ken-chan! I wanna see Ken-chan!"

"LET ME GO TO DAISUKE!!!!!! LET ME GOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"

The two balls of digital fur eventually made their way out her arms and darted toward the door of Daisuke's room.

"Minomon!" Miyako yelled as she speeded up after them "Chibimon!!" And Patamon and Upamon close followed.

Hikari giggled before go after her friends, but stopped as she noticed Ken pacing back and forth in front of the bedroom door. She wanted to reach out to him, but he didn't seem to notice her. She quietly made her way toward him, anyway, even if he didn't seem to be aware of her.

Looking away from him she saw the others gathered around Daisuke's bed, where he laid still unconscious…still smiling slightly. Takeru glanced at her from inside the room and shook slowly his head.

She sighed.

Then gulped when she noticed Ken was looking at her, big violet eyes watering.

"Aren't you going to be there when he'll wake up?" she asked.

"The other will be with him" he said softly. "He won't be alone."

"What about you, Ken?" Hikari moved closer, looking up at the sky out of a window, her hands clasped behind her back.

"What do you mean?" he asked, following her gaze out the window and up to a passing cloud.

"You're not the one who made to him…" she sighed. "Whatever has been done to him…" she paused, playing with a lock of her hair with a finger. "You should be in there with us…with *him*." She paused, dropping her finger from her hair. "Both of you *need* it."

Ken stood where he was for a few seconds, then returned to his gaze to the floor. His shoulders dropped, then he straightened and looked out over the horizon. Swirling around, he paced quietly toward Daisuke's room, and Hikari couldn't help but let out a content giggle as she promptly followed him in.

"How is him?" she asked as she peered inside the room.

"Nothing new." Takeru sighed as she flopped down to floor with a soft 'thud'.

As Takeru said this, Chibimon nuzzled closer to his human, rubbing his plump cheek against his chest. His big eyes were half closed and his mouth was reduced to a thin line.

"I know he will be all right soon…" he whispered.

At that the purple-haired genius' lips twitched upward in a crooked little smile, and on instinct he moved closer to the bed.

"Me too…" he said quietly, before sitting on the bed beside Daisuke's feet. Chibimon titled his head sideways, casting him a quick glance, before resuming his nuzzling closer to his partner.

Ken ran his palm over the blankets tucked around Daisuke's prone form lightly, and when he reached his hand, he softly move it out from under the blankets, and cupped his pale hand over Daisuke's. The contrast between his snowy finger and Daisuke's tan bronzed skin frozen Ken in his spot. Their hands were so identical, yet radically different…like look in a mirror and receive back a twisted reflection. That little contact miraculously managed to fade away Ken's panic into a feeling of calm and peace. He kept running his thumb over the back of Daisuke's hand and wanted so badly to look up and see Daisuke's face, that it hurt. But it hurt even more to know than once he'll look up he wouldn't see Daisuke look back at him.

Out of the blue the dark fingers squeezed lightly his paler ones, and the purple-haired boy's head snapped up in awe.

"Daisuke?" everyone looked at them and soft cries escaped their mouths as Daisuke's eyes fluttered open.

He slowly rose up, blinking his brown chocolate eyes leisurely.When he was up in a sitting position, Daisuke's lids fluttered for a moment, then lifted halfway. He gracefully tilted his head and looked around at a snail's pace, surveying them all. He kept blinking dawdling all the time. Then he tilted his head down and closed his eyes, reaching a hand out to his brown hair. It ran trough his spikes slowly and with a grace no one had ever suspected he could have. His lips moved and parted slightly, allowing a small moan to escape them as he charmingly let his fingertips move gently trough his hair.

No one dared to speak as they looked at him. He was mesmerizing in the slow, elegant way he moved, and no one could dare to shatter the moment. It was as if time slowed down, allowing them to savor every single second of that.

His lips puckered a little and when his fingers unbounded from his hair, he gave his head a little toss and blew air out trough his slight parted lips. He produced a low, soft sound, a sweet melody to the ears of whoever was close enough to ear.

With an elegant toss of his wrist, his hand dropped in his lap and Daisuke re-opened his eyes. Then he lifted his head, blinking in the sudden brilliance that shone down on his face trough the window. He squirted his eyes closed before blink them several times, to get used to the light.

As if he had opened his eye that very moment.

When the mahogany orbs focused, he couldn't suppress the cry of surprise that rose to his lips.

"G-guys…?" he murmured, a question more than a statement.

"You gave us quite a scare Dai." Ken smiled at his side, squeezing his hand a little harder.

"I'm…I'm sorry…" He smiled weakly. "I dragged you to the digital world to save it, but then you had to save me…" he sighed. "I guess it all was supposed to be a bait for me…"

"Bait?" Takeru frowned.

Daisuke nodded slowly, looking deeply in his blue eyes. "He wants me, right?" he shrugged. "And want he wants, he gets." Daisuke took in a deep breath and exhaled deeply, a long and sort of elaborate lungful of air which made Ken flinch.

"Not if we'll fight him." He offered.

Daisuke just shook his head.

"We should have left you here!" erupted Miyako. "where you're safer!"

"We know that, *now* Miyako." said Hikari. "How could we imagine what the Kaiser wanted?"

"So, it's settled." Concluded Iori. "No more journeys to the digital world for you, Daisuke."

Daisuke sighed again, not caring to hide his discomfort, as he placed a hand on his forehead. He looked like hurting and when he bit gently his bottom lip, he just confirmed the first impression he had given. Ken opened his mouth but Chibimon jumped on Daisuke's lap, waving angrily his little hands, a look of panic setting his eyes on fire.

"D'suke is tired! Let him rest! All of you, go away!!! Go! Go! Go!!!" he puffed out his cheeks, narrowing his eyes in attempt to look scary…and only succeeding in looking utterly kawaii.

"See you later, then!" Giggled Hikari, who was now at his side. "Rest, Daisuke…" She smiled sweetly and gave him a little peek on his cheek.

Takeru just stepped closer and waved a hand in front of his face, flashing him one of the famous "Ishida family" smiles. Iori bowed slightly before step outside the room. Miyako, being the overexcited teen that she was, rushed at his side and held out a finger in front of his nose, a rather angry look on her face.

"Now, don't do anything stupid as rushing outside and go playing soccer, or I'll have to do something *bad* to you! Ya heard me?"

"All right, *mom*…" Daisuke chuckled as Miyako rolled her eyes before reach the others in the corridor.

"Will you be all right, Dai?" Ken whispered, a little disappointed that Daisuke had let go of his hand to lie down. Ken's breath caught in his throat, a rush of warmth coursed through his body as Daisuke stared at him, and a huge, sweet smile appeared instantly on his lips.

"Hai…" he managed in a breath, his lids heaving. He shifted under the sheets and Ken carefully stood up and noiselessly walked outside. Chibimon burrowed under the covers, and quietly nuzzled closer to Daisuke. It was only when everyone had left the house, that he poked his head up. He hopped down the bed and scuttled across the floor, till he was in front of the door. There, after casting a last glance --one filled with worry and bordering to sadness-- at his companion, now tossing lightly in his sleep, Chibimon jumped up and locked them inside.

* * * * *

The Kaiser raged round his fortress, cursing the bad luck that let his designed prey flew away, and threading dreadful things to the one who had let all of his toys to run away.

A movement in the corner of the dark corridor caught his attention. When he looked over, his eyes made contact with a pair of glassy ruby ones. His digimon.

He growled in annoyance.

Typical.

Everywhere he went, he would have gone after him.

The Kaiser could feel his features twisting in a look of anger, and in response he ducked his head, allowing his hair to slide forward and conceal his face.

The digimon —now in his rookie form— stepped out the shadows which were surrounding him and gave his partner a long look.

There was a strange contrast between the boy and the digimon. The boy was wearing a wary look, paralyzed by his own rage, but the digimon stood calmly, and only by the slow way he let his lids drop and raise from every now and then, one could say he was a living being and *not* a some kind of toy.

The digimon Kaiser stepped closer and walked slowly around the little digimon, as the earth circle the sun. But that wasn't right, since *he* was the sun. The conqueror. The emperor. The *God*.

"You…" he hissed quietly, letting the tip of his tongue peer out his lips as a snake would have done. "You let them go…"

The digimon followed his "master" with his gaze as he spoke. "I had to." The Kaiser stopped to pace around the little body and stepped closer, bowing forward to be nearly at eye-level.

"What?" he hissed, evilness leaking from his voice.

"Daisuke was hurt." He replied. "What else did you want me to do? I had to let them go."

"You…" he blew air in trough his grinned teeth, producing a rather disturbing hiss, but the digimon didn't lose his calm.

"What did you want me to do? Stay there and wait for him to awake? Oh! How *smart* for me to do!"

At this point the Digimon Kaiser jerked up and before his digimon could ever think, his master's whip was sneaking toward him full force. In a flash it hit his rather puffy cheek and sent him flying toward the wall. As the ball of digital data hit the stone wall, the digimon Kaiser retreated his whip, ready to smash him again.

The little digimon suddenly looked up, his eyes narrowing in dangerous anger.

"I'm not *Wormmon*." He hissed. "You can't do as you please with me…I could always go against you."

"You wouldn't."

"No? I'm *your* digimon after all. My priority *isn't* to be whipped to blood. My priority is to protect, cherish and comfort." He stopped, slowly rising up. "…even if this could mean go against your wishes."

"Oh?" he said that completely nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. Then, he opened his mouth to reply, but shut it again as he realized the truth of what his digimon said. Being *theirs* digimon meant that, after all…he had done right, letting Daisuke go. "…sorry…" he growled, his own words clawing their way up his throat, burning the insides of his mouth and bruising his lips as they exited his mouth.

"What?" the digimon blinked, looking bewildered.

"Don't make me repeat myself!!!" The Kaiser snapped. "You heard me, I know you did."

Grinning evilly, his digimon hopped to his feet, shifting his weight forth and back to one foot and then to another, clasping his hands behind his back. "No, in all honestly I didn't. What did you say?"

His eyes flashed angry behind the heavy shades, but the digimon could see the little glint of amusement rippling their depths. "Now, don't challenge your luck, little thing."

The digimon shrugged. "Just trying to amuse myself."

"And don't try to imitate me!"

"Just trying to amuse myself!" he stock out his tongue at his master, who rolled his eyes and let out an annoyed sigh, which only made his digimon's smile grew eviler. "Are you angry Kai-chan?"

This took the Kaiser completely off guard. He swirled around and jerked his head backward, his usual grace suddenly gone for a brief moment. "WHAT??" His digimon blinked up at him.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"How dared you to call me…like…like…like…*that*??"

"Kai-chan?" he blinked, waving his little ears. "It's cute."

"I'm the *emperor*" he hissed, bending forward and reaching a finger out in front of the blue face "I'm scary. I'm evil, I'm everything *but* cute!" he raged. His hand automatically went to his whip. His digimon blinked before look at his hand, then he blinked again and looked straight up at his face. Realizing what he was doing, the Kaiser dropped his hand away from his weapon as if he had been burned. Then he swirled around and paced toward his control room, grumbling something under his breath.

"It's cute." The digimon shrugged once again, before hurry after him. "What do we do, now?"

The sparkling eyes of the evil tyrant darted toward the little thing bouncing at his side and he drew back his lips in displeasure. The digimon took the hint and sighed, his little shoulder raising and dropping in annoyance. "Excuse me if I dare to ask, you Royal Highness, but I'd like to know what do you need me to do."

"You're catching on." He smirked. "It sounded false, but it was better, indeed." He looked forward again, taking long, calibrate steps toward his final destination. "We need everything to be set by the next time they'll come here. I want those digidestined kids to be welcome guests in my fortress."

"You do?" the little comment was rewarded with a glacial look. "'K. Just checking. What kind of things do we need to set?"

"Oh, you'll see…" he smirked. "You'll see… …anyway." His gaze, who had previously returned to the dark corridor, was now back on the insolent digimon. "Be ready to fight. I want you to challenge them in battle."

"…" the little digimon looked thoughtful for a moment. Then his ears twitched and he blinked. "…Kai-…M-Master?" 

"Oh, yes, you're catching on." the Digimon Emperor chuckled.

"Master…what do I do with the digidestined? Do I have to kill them?" The Kaiser stopped instantly. And his digimon could see by the working of his face that he was thinking, and the process seemed so deep and so…hearted that the digimon, in all his innocence, could just blink. At last, after a hard swallow, he spoke, his face expressionless, as his veiled by a fine, invisible sheet of coldness.

"You know what my final purpose is." He spoke quietly, his words leaving his lips in a breath as soft as butterfly's wing beats. "I shall give Daisuke what he wants. What he needs. I'll give him what he needs in order to keep living. He won't survive if he'll cut his wrist again." His eyes wandered unconsciously toward his own wrists. "Humans being are fragile. So fragile that a wind's blow a little stronger could shatter them into pieces. And Daisuke can't bear another blow. Not even one as gentle as a breath." His eyes narrowed as his tongue darted out his lips, to lick the suddenly dry skin. "And after I'll give him everything, he'll give me back whatever *I* need. The obscure corner of his soul, where shadows dance and twist as a living creature, will be my refuge and my home…and its voice, that sings broken nursery rhymes to him while he sleep, will feed me as I'll feed Daisuke with the gift of happiness. I'll give him a taste of life, letting him relish in the little bubble of soap that will be his happiness and he'll give me back…himself." The Kaiser smirked, letting his lips trace leisurely a wet line across his bottom lip.

His digimon was drinking in his words, a rather fascinated looks playing over his little features. He didn't even dare to breathe as he was scared to break the rather holy moment. All of a sudden he was overwhelmed by a need to worship and please this boy in front of him, who never had loved anything as much as he loved Daisuke in that moment. His digimon could feel it too, coursing all the way through his bones, rushing inside his vein and tingling through every fiber of his body.

Daisuke was the Kaiser's heaven.

But Daisuke was his hell as well.

His damnation and his glorification, Daisuke was the only being that could free him and allow him to rack this world under his domination, or else cage him forever.

The digimon sighed, shacking slowly his head.

Which choice was better?

Let a crazy dominator taking over the world, or leave a lonely soul be enchained for all the eternity in the depths of a blue damnation?

Let a young, carefree boy to be encaged in the glacial hug of a lethal love, or let a lonely soul take his only chance to fully live the life that had always been denied to him?

The digimon wasn't sure.

The only thing he was sure of, was the he would be by his master's side till the end.

No matter what.

"Let them live." The moment of "religious" truth came to an end, and the Kaiser hissed, chewing gently his bottom lip in dark pleasure. "Let them live, he *needs* them to be there." He restarted to walk, only to be stopped by the haunting little presence behind him, which gave voice to the conscience that he hadn't inside.

"And what about Ken?"

Something inside him stirred at the mentioning of that name. His eyes narrowed as he played in his mind the scene of him and Daisuke almost kissing. Over and over he let the images run in front of his eyes, killing a bit of his soul every time he remembered their lips nearly brushing, their breaths mingling, their looks crossing to share an intimacy he couldn't share with his tan skinned love.

He loved him because of the feelings Ken had held for the tan skinned boy since the first time he laid his eyes on him. The Kaiser knew that and Ken knew that too, somewhere deep inside.

This somehow raged them.

Both of them.

They just couldn't accept that.

None of them.

"Let him live, too." He stated quietly, resuming his walking. "He *needs* him, as well, but at a somewhat deeper level." The Kaiser snorted, narrowing his eyes till they became to glowing slides in which the shadows around him reflected themselves. "And I need to broke him with my own hands, if I want Daisuke to be completely mine."

* * * * *

He glanced at the small building before pushing open the door and entering. The warmth and aroma of coffee wrapped itself around him as he carefully stepped inside, slightly disturbed by the soft ring of the bells on the door announcing his arrival. His eyes scanned the whole shop, till a friendly waitress stepped up at his side, snapping him out of his trance.

"Are you alone or joining someone?"  
Frowning slightly, the boy kept looking around, replying in the kindest voce he could manage at that moment: "Joining someone. But think they aren't arrived yet, though."  
"Maybe you would like to seat down at a table and wait for your friends?"

He nodded silently and slowly made his way toward a lone corner, to settle down in the small table by the window, looking with eyes that held no sight at the warm cup of cappuccino that was being offered to him.

She walked sort of timidly inside the little shop, and took a few seconds to look around. A fresh aroma of coffee tickled her nostrils as she looked around. Suddenly a blonde glimpse at the corner of her eyes caught her attention and here he was, his back to her, but the never-missing hat making him unmistakable.

From the point where she stood at the entrance, she could see how her friend looked distracted, worried. The crystalline blue eyes were filled with something indefinable, but surely close to the worry.

She gracefully walked up to him and cleared her throat. "Sorry I'm late" Moving a lock of brown hair away from her eyes, she carefully sat down in the seat in front of him. He didn't even bother to look up, too absorbed in the way his coffespoon traced golden circles in the brown liquid.

Sighing, she decided to try something different. "Takeru?" She said softly as she laid a hand over his. It was cold.

The blue eyes flicked up towards her, a small frown on his face. "I don't understand."

Hikari, sighed, shifting in her seat to a more comfortable position. "Me neither, Takeru…everything is so strange…" her fingers unconsciously reached out toward her hair and her look wandered out the window. "Are you worried for him?"

"Is being worried for an old friend a crime?" he snapped, rather hurt.

"No, of course not." She shook slowly her head, returning her hazel eyes to his face. "But we never considered him before…God, Takeru what happened to us? How come we isolated him so much? Why are we realizing we care for him only now that we could lose him?"  
He gazed straight into her eyes. "You're worried too, then." A slight nod of her head told him he was right. "Hikari…I can't help but be worried for him…" he looked down at his hand and entwined his fingers with her. "I don't know…he…radiate something…he radiate hope and yet I can feel he is hopeless. I'm the bearer of the crest of hope, Hikari, I can't deny this is puzzling me."

"And he radiate light, too." She nodded slowly. "But yet it seems like he had lost his light as well."

"Had the Kaiser done this to him?"

"I think so." She nodded slowly, locking her eyes with his, now wide and focused on her.

"Two cappuccino please, and very *heavy* on chocolate!!!!!!" the cheerful voice startled the two away from each other. The owner of the high-pitched voice grinned and added in a teasing tone, "What?! Did I just shatter one of those Kodak moments between our little couple?! Oooow…" she slumped down in a seat next to Hikari. "It was *his* idea, though."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!" he protested, but shrugged. "I didn't even notice you two, I just suggested to take a seat and order." The littlest digidestined slowly sat down near his blonde friend. "Something's wrong?"

"A little something has been bugging me, yeah…" He replied, trying to sound nonchalantly. And luckily the cups that slided in front of their noses saved him from further explanation. "Here's your cappuccino." the waitress smiled sweetly, before walk away.

"So." Miyako paused as she took her time to blew on her cup and cool her hot drink. "What do we do, now?"

"Go seeing Daisuke it's the first thing to do, I think."

"Now?"

"We just exited school and we have noting planned for the evening, so why not?" Hikari shrugged. Then she looked around. "Where is Ken?"

"It should be coming." Miyako said before took a sip of her cappuccino. "I called him."

"I did it, too…" blinked Hikari.

"Ehm…me too…" added Iori, widening his eyes. Takeru, the only one who hasn't spoken yet, slid down his seat, dropping his shoulders.

"I did the same…I called him and adverted him not to miss…" he mumbled.

"For Daisuke's sake…" Hikari ended and everyone nodded. Miyako rolled her eyes, slamming her cup on the table rather hardly.

"I hope he didn't take it the wrong way!" she paused, letting out a heavy sigh. "I juts wanted him to be with Dai, cause I felt it is right…"

"We all felt the same, Miyako…" Hikari reassured, in her sweet, caring voice, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. Her smile disappeared as the quiet voice questioned,

"So, tell me. Why is so important for you to make your leader met the former Digimon Emperor?"

She lowered her head, evading his piercing gaze, before answering, "That depends. I think he is the only one that can truly do something to help Daisuke." Suddenly, she looked up, her gaze serious and intense "Am I wrong, Ken?"

Big violet eyes narrowed briefly at the comment and he slowly make himself comfortable near the lavender haired girl. "It depends." He mumbled. "How and why do you think I could help him?"

"You're his partner!" said Hikari. "The one he shares the jogress shinka with!"

Ken shrugged.

"You know *why* the Kaiser wants him!" Miyako held out a hand in front of her as she noticed Ken's mouth opening for a reply. "And don't try do deny it! You don't know how or why but you knew the Kaiser was after him! You admitted it!" Ken shrugged again, letting out a some sort of resigned sigh and relaxed in his seat.

"You're his best friend." Stated Iori, his big emerald eyes narrowing.

"You're…" Leaning forward, Takeru whispered in a raspy voice, low enough just for the purple haired boy's ear to catch it. "You're his *love*." He pulled back in his seat and his eyes flinched up just in time to see Ken's face quickly converting from shock to embarrassment, a deep blush creeping over his usual pale cheeks.

"You-You mean it?"  
"I mean it." He nodded. "He needs you cause you're *you*."  
  


After what seems like an eternity Ken nodded and silently stood up.

Takeru sat, looking at him for a moment, delighted in the way he had made him uncomfortable and thinking over what kind of effect Ken had on their cinnamon haired leader. He sighed as he stood up, speeding up to catch after the other boy.

* * * * *

When Davis woke up, it was for the weight on his chest. The first thing he felt was the sharp pain of the light hitting his eyes. The first thing he heard was Chibimon's sweet whisper.

"How are you feeling, D'suke?" Daisuke opened slowly his still groggy eyes and blinked at the sight of his digimon sitting on his chest.

"Like I just came out from a washing machine…" he groaned.

The little digimon giggled, curving his big eyes into to tiny lines. He twitched his ears and moved happily his rather too big feet.

The memories of what had happened before he blacked out suddenly came back to him, and Daisuke looked around, trying to recollect the puzzle that was now his memory. He noticed the light was flooding copiously trough the blind. The next thing he noticed was that his head didn't hurt as before. So, feeling a lot better but still kind of tired, Daisuke sat up in the bed. He felt dizzy and tired, and it was strange since he should have slept for a long time.

"Ah!!" after realizing *that*, the question hit him like a slap. His gaze dash toward his alarm clock and his mouth fell open. "15:30…" he stated slowly. "Two hours after the clubs activities at school ends…" he blinked. He had missed school! "KUSO!!!!!!!" Daisuke flung his legs over the edge of his bed in a flash, but he had a hard time staying up. He was *tired*. 

*Extremely* tired.

A hard knock on his door made him jump and fell down on his bed with a strangled yelp.

"SQUIRT! Open immediately this door!! Your friends are here to see you!!"

"J-Jun…?"

"AND WHO ELSE, IDIOT?! OPEN UP!"

"O-open up…?" Daisuke blinked, amused. The door was closed? From the inside? Who…? Then it hit him and his eyes fell down toward the big ones peering from under his sheets. They blinked. Once. Twice. Three times.

"…it was…safer…" eventually came the hesitant reply.

Daisuke shrugged as rose up from his bed, walking toward his door as fast as his legs let him. "Hi…" he breathed as he unlocked the door and peered outside. 

"Come in…"He whispered, hiding his face from his friends. They slowly entered his room one by one and Iori noiselessly closed the door behind them. 

Daisuke slowly went to his bed and sat down, wrapping the cover around his body.

"Feeling better?" asked Takeru, sitting down on the only chair.

"…kinda." He muttered.

"You really scared us, Dai!!" giggled Hikari.

Now, where did I already heard that??

"You even missed school!!" scolded Miyako.

Really?? Tell me something I didn't know already!"

"You look better, though, maybe still a little pale…" breathed Iori.

Are their brains short-circuit?? It isn't too difficult of a concept to grasp, that being pale his a *clear* signal of a some kind of disease!

"Are you sure you're all right, Daisuke?" Takeru blinked, noticing the emotions playing over his face.

OH! Like if he gave a damn.

"Don't worry, Dai!" giggled Kari. "We'll help you feeling better!!"

How? Jumping down a cliff? Idiot little bitch…

…Oh god.

Chocolate brown eyes widened in horror as Daisuke realized *what* he had been thinking.

He *wasn't* supposed to think like that.

With such venom.

He was supposed to be their friend.

Not someone who threw them free insults…

In a voice that *didn't* belong to him.

"Oh, my…"

"Are you alright, Dai?" Ken's concerned voice almost broke him, but he quickly shrug off the pale hand tentatively placed on his shoulder. Daisuke knew he had to look pale or something, since he could feel the blood quickly rush away from his face.

"I'm…I'm fine…" he looked up at the deep pools of purple which were Ken's eyes… "Ken…" Every time Daisuke looked straight into Ken's eyes he felt like drowning. At the scary thing was that he *liked* it. 

Yeah, yeah…he is cute indeed… 

"Ken, I…" 

"Daisuke?" 

Bah…Over with that shit! 

"I…I…I…" Daisuke lowered his head, focusing on the sheets. "Go away, please…" 

"But Dai…"

"You don't understand!" he yelled, shutting his eyes "I said go away!!"

Ken reached one hand up and brushed a lock of hair away from his face. Surprised that he was on the verge of tears, Ken reached his hand out toward his shoulder, murmuring softly his name:  
"Daisuke…"  
"DON'T TOUCH ME!!!!!" he screamed, slapping Ken's hand away. Instantly, he retreat it.

Now the boy *knew* something was wrong. Daisuke was *never* like this. Not without a reason.Not with him.  
"Daisuke what…" Hikari stepped closer, confused.  
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" he screamed, trembling madly. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!! YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!"

Tsk! How could them?

And with that he jerked up to his feet and ran away.

  
"Daisuke!" Ken screamed as he run after him and Chibimon, now on Daisuke's shoulder. He was looking back at them, his red eyes wide and apologetic. Ken didn't need to turn around to know the other were following him as he ran after Daisuke, rushing like there was no tomorrow through the corridors. Then, they reached him…

In front of Jun's computer.

Holding out his digivice.

"NO DAISUKE!!!"

"DIGIPORT OPEN!!!!" he yelled. A great light filled the room, and a second later Daisuke was gone.

* * * * *

Daisuke opened his eyes to find himself flying through a void filled with millions little fragments lights and colored bows spiraling around him. He reached a hand out and caressed a bright beam of indigo as it circled around him, giving off a musical note. When the strange wave that separated him from his friends the last time came, Daisuke just closed his eyes, letting the wave of energy surround him. Not fighting it, but welcoming it in every way he knew, he took a deep breath in and waited. 

Waited. 

Waited. 

Too see what he didn't want to see. 

Too ear what he feared to ear.

The world then became dark as he slid deeper through the once colored void. Even if his eyes were closed he could see flash of with light here and there, he briefly wondered when he'd arrive, when all of a sudden. He stopped feeling like whirling in a glass of water.

The brief journey brought him in a very bright place, were the purity of the last sunrays blinded him. He reached a hand out in front of his face, giving his eyes the time to adjust to the light. He blinked and looked around, until he saw Veemon's sweet eyes looking up at him.

He blinked and his digimon did too, mirroring his action. Then, the blue ball of fur smiled and it was Daisuke's time to mirror the other's action. Carefully placing one foot in front of the other, Daisuke took his first hesitant step outside the forest and inside the flower field, where the violets were still waiting for him, whispering softly in the warm breeze.

Walking silently through the emerald grass, embellished by shining pockets of silver blue petals, Daisuke slowly found his way toward the lake. Its azure surface rippled and danced at the point where the small waterfall bubbled into the limpid water.

As he reached the edge, the tan skinned boy rested his back against a high palm, his eyes lost and faraway. He slowly slid down the tree, closing his eyes and tilting his head down toward the blue water as he touched the ground.

And waited.

His digimon at his side, his arms placed on his knees.

He waited.

Until he opened his eyes, and his gaze met why the sight he didn't want to see.

"Kaiser…" he whispered.

"Daisuke…" he purred back.

"…why…?" he chocked out a last, closing his eyes to block the painful sigh in front of him.

"Oh, Daisuke…" he purred again, sending a shiver to run down the tan skinned boy's spine.

"This isn't right…why? Why…? Why?!" he cried, his voice quickly rising from a whisper to a loud yell.

"I'll give you whatever you want, Daisuke…whatever you need…close you eyes, Daisuke, and relax…I won't hurt you…"

"…why…?" he chocked again.

"You're mine Daisuke, I'm yours…"

"…no…"

"It's not use denying what destiny settled for us, Daisuke…" he licked his lips. "Come to me…and I'll give everything you need, everything you want…"

"…everything…I…want?"

He laughed at this. "Didn't I provide you with the thing you need the most while you dreamt?"

Daisuke's eyes widened in shock. "It was you…it was you all along…"

"I gave you happiness during those dream, didn't I? Now let me give you *really* what will make you happy, my Daisuke…"he paused, feeling the uncertainty rushing inside Daisuke.

"No one ever cared for you, my Daisuke…have they ever listened to you? It's a horrible world, Daisuke…where people are closed-minded…they hate you cause you've proved to be different, to think different…they had cast you away for not fitting a prefixed mould…" The Kaiser voice was as sweet as poison and as mesmerizing as nothing Daisuke could compare it to. "They have never accepted you, and they'll never will. I'm the only one that love you and I'll protect you, I promise, so…stay here with me, forever...I'll stop the pain, Daisuke, I'll stop the laughs, the beats…I'll heal your soul…let me Daisuke…just say 'yes' and let me save you…"

Daisuke's hand jerked up to grab the goggles, glistening in the daylight on their resting spot above his head, and tossed them on the ground. The glass shattered and billions little fragments flied everywhere. Embellished with reflected sunrays, glimmering teardrops and pulsing red blood.

"Daisuke!" Veemon cried as he rushed to his side, noticing the ruby track slid down his hand as he gripped the broken goggles tightly.

"…save me…" he whispered. "…yes…save…me…" 

=========================================

To be continued in part 04: Return 

** **

** **

** **

** **

**Well? What did you think? Good? Bad? Strange? CRAZY? @_@ **

**Surely that was *long*…-_-;; now you understand why I had to divide this in two… **

**Send me feedbacks and tell me what you think! It gives me confidence and helps me write more stuff, better (hopefully!!!) and faster!!! So, please review!!! **

**I just hope I haven't been too evil ending the chapter *there*…::glances nervously at a mob of angry readers who are coming dangerously closer, holding out every kind of weapon you could imagine:: **

**AAAAH!!!!! ::squeezes stuffed Ken-chan and Daisuke dolls and whimpers:: Oh, I didn't mean to be evil!!!! _ Go tell it to my muses!!!!!!!!!! **

** **

** **

** **

** **

** **


	4. Shattered Mirror - part 4 - Return

**WAH!!! Thank to your reviews and all your support, the fourth chapter is here!!!!What does it got? Bad grammar?? **

**Uhm…yeah, that and some funny scenes, a little sad scene concerning blood, and…::takes a deep breath::yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi!!!!! *Finally* we have a *real* Daiken scene here!!! ::everyone gasps:: I know, I know, it was time that something happened between those two ^_^ I mean, in three chapters they just hugged, *nearly* ::underlines the word 'nearly':: kissed, held hands …but anyways, hope you'll like it! ^^ **

**This fic is dedicated to Hotaru ::grins:: hope ya like how this is coming out!! But I suppose this chapter is dedicated to Brooke Davis too, for the help and the support ::waves happily:: hi!!! **

**Ja minna! **

## Shattered mirror 

## Part 04 – Return

All the way from the coffee shop to Daisuke's house, Ken's heart had pounded fiercely in his chest, resounding strong and happy in his ears. Set on fire, it had leaped up to his throat, speeded up, jumped…it had done a lot of crazy things Ken couldn't explain, but that had made him feel warm inside, lightheaded and a little shaky. He had felt his face heating up, and his eyes watering from an unknown reason. The thick jacket and scarf wrapped around his body had suddenly seemed too constricting for a moment, suffocating him, forcing him in a mould he couldn't recognize as his at that very moment.But all that hadn't happened for the breathtaking rush he had broke into as soon as he had took his first step out the little shop, oh no! Ken was sure of this.

But now, on his way through the deep forest, Ken's heart had sank, and the once shining jewel was now a hard and dark rock heaving his chest. Something dark and ugly trembled inside him, a cold fire clenched to his heart. This time, what awaited him at the end of his breathtaking rush, wasn't Daisuke's smiling face. Wasn't the scaring, yet so exciting possibility to see his lips part slightly to mouth a sweet declaration, his eyes ripple with warm emotion.

This time what awaited him could be…

Hell. Maybe literally. Hell.

Cause Daisuke went to the Kaiser.

Willingly.

Ken knew that was the reason for his sudden run away, but he couldn't believe it.

He could *let himself* believe it.

Ken gritted his teeth. Why had he got so excited anyway? And why was he so disappointed, now?

Uncomfortable in the cold clench of this feeling, Ken wasn't aware of anything around him. Suddenly, a faint sound, soft and somewhat sad and rather hesitant, forced him to a screeched halt and back to reality. He widened his eyes and he turned, quickly, finding his companions running behind him.

The little melody Daisuke's heart usually played with his own was growing faint, distant, drowning in a dark oblivion that left his depths overwhelmed by a freezing silence.

Courage's heartbeat had faded away.

"I…can't feel his heartbeat anymore…" he managed in a breath.

Everyone fell silent.

Kari had felt the air grow colder as they walked further north, but that coldness was nothing compared to what they felt now. The air getting chilly had not stopped them. But this sudden coldness did.

All of a sudden, Ken restarted to walk, running as if he was possessed, blinded by this sudden impression that if he stopped there he would freeze forever, unable to move forward until the dusk of time. Hikari knew that he could not keep up this pace much longer. No one of them could, for that matter. They had walked miles and had been running for more than an hour without rest. Already, Iori had began to lag behind. Hikari had done all her best to keep up with Ken's pace but she was beginning to tire. And just when she thought she couldn't go on much longer, she has looked up, opening her mouth to reason with Ken, but she had found the purple haired genius had stopped. He had swirled toward them with a light of burning fear inside his eyes, his mouth open but nothing coming out of it.

He silently mouthed something, and kept moving his lips until a faint whisper slid out them.

"I…can't feel his heartbeat anymore…"

She knew this would happen. Daisuke had drifted away from them. She just hoped it to happen as late as possible. How could she tell them the Kaiser made Daisuke happy? They would never understand. She herself couldn't understand it, even is she had been gifted with the possibility to share that feeling of happiness Daisuke had radiated the previous day in the field of violets. Spreading out from his body, the warm feeling had danced around her, enclosing her in its warm hug. That's why she knew.

"Ken?" she whispered, in that moment of peculiar clarity, when she thought she could see behind his mask. "I know what you feel." He stopped. "But we need a plan." She stepped closer and he didn't move. "Daisuke is all right. The Kaiser would never *hurt* him…" he gave his head a slight toss and slowly turned around, big purple eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "he *wants* him, Ken, he won't hurt him." She smiled, trying to infuse that single smile with all the confidence she felt lacked in the older boy.

Ken nodded and turned his face to the sky where the large pale sun peaked out from behind the evening clouds. Rays of sun crept along the bluffs, clothing each blade of grass with a dress of gold and bathing his face in a soft glow.

"I know…" he whispered in a breath, nodding slowly and letting his lids drop to half cover the purple orbs.

A black figure appeared and stared down at the Chosen children. The sun reflected on Ken's ivory skin and was casting a some kind of spell on the dark figure. It quickly disappeared from sight when it saw Ken look up at the sky. Hikari let out a soft sigh and looked up as well, causing the figure to grin from inside the black shadows of the threes.

Slowly and carefully, it silently ordered his mount to leap up, and made its way closer to the digidestined with a devilish grin on its face.

Hikari blinked her eyes, her gaze focused on the soft clouds above. "Oh, my…" she whispered, her eyes wide. Something had appeared and had covered the sun. At first glance it could look like some kind of aircraft, a black, metal, battle cruiser. Shining black and incredibly huge, it concealed the sun and made it more dark in clearing. It moved toward them, its sharp, black front glowing with a white beam of energy in the process of forming.

"WATCH OUT!!" She yelled as she pushed herself out of the shot's trajectory.

A blinding flashing light came from within the dark shape fogged in the clouds. Hikari shielded her eyes from the sudden flash as the beam shot down through the sky, and reached beyond the dim clouds toward them. It rushed toward the ground at hit it full force. And when the brunette dared to reopen her eyes, she found herself at the edge of the crater formed where the shot had hit the ground, and it still glowed faintly with a greenish kind of light. Her brown eyes widened as she crawled on her hands and knees toward the very edge, reaching a hand out to the faint glow. Suddenly the atmosphere around it became incredibly hot and Hikari snatched her hand away and held it.

It was throbbing like she had just been burned.

Her head jerked up and met with the sight of a boy of her age, sitting gracefully astride the black armored digimon, as an extension of his shining body. He was clothed in a purple, white and yellow jumpsuit, with heavy metal cuffs and a golden armor. His slender body was enfolded in a purple cape that resembled insect wings and his eyes, glowing pools of evilness, were shielded from a pair of tinted purple lenses. His spiky hair was ruffled by the wind and his grin was wide on his lips. Here he was, the looming image of the long-dormant Digimon Kaiser.

"Oh my, *that* was enough to scare you off, little bitch??" he hissed. Then his grin widened and became a low snigger, which developed into a full, superb laugh that shook hardly his shoulder when he whipped his head backward.

"YOU!!" she yelled, jerking up on her feet. "Where is Daisuke??"

Ken stepped closer at this and, unnoticed by him, Takeru did that too. Instead of answer, the digimon Kaiser let his laugh quiet down and he looked down at the girl in front of him with the same look the eyes of a sneak held when they focus on a prey. Her brown eyes were hooked on him as his huge digimon royally landed a few feet in front of her, beating his wings with nonchalance.

Feeling all his rage, his worry built up inside him, Ken took a step forward, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"What did you do to Daisuke??"Once again, the digimon Kaiser did not answer. Instead he slid gracefully from his Digimon's back and stepped closer, giving Ken a good sigh of his former self.

Ken's eyes widened briefly and his mouth went dry as he, once again, felt like looking at a distorted image of himself. The twisted reflection lost his grin as it stepped closer. Ken's eyes narrowed, momentarily blinded by the energy that seemed to flow out the other boy. He was mesmerizing. The way his hand slowly raised toward his digimon's nuzzle was charming. The way he took something glistening in the fading daylight from the big mouth, holding it close to his chest, was hypnotizing. The grace with which he slowly turned around to face him was fascinating.

Ken's mouth opened as he slowly realized there was something…*wrong*, something *disturbing* in the silent figure standing still in front of him. It seemed like his vision was tinted by a pair of dark glasses. Purple lenses. The same he used to conceal his eyes when *he* was the emperor.

Ken blinked quickly his eyes.

That couldn't be right! He wasn't wearing any glasses…but yet, the image in front of him seemed obscured by a soft veil of magenta.

The purple haired boy snapped out of his thoughts to come face to face to reality, when he noticed that the Kaiser was stepping closer. The tyrant's arm sneaked forward with a rapidity unknown to any other creature and the shimmering item he held in his hand flew toward Ken at full speed, hitting him right in the middle of his chest.

The bow hadn't been all that hard but somehow it managed to leave Ken breathless.

Still glimmering in the dim light, it slid down his gray jacket, tracing a track of ruby red on its way down.

"I think he wanted you to keep these." The digimon Kaiser hissed quietly, his eyes never leaving Ken's now astonished face. "You're the new leader, now."

Ken shakily looked down, feeling the blood leave quickly his cheeks. His purple gaze moved down slowly, and what Ken Ichijouji saw in the next few seconds would be seared into his memory for all time.

Goggles…

Daisuke's beloved goggles laid down on the soft grass at his feet, a large crack running in one eye.

Red…

Something red and gleaming moisten the glass. His eyes, wide and unfocused, slowly moved down to his chest, where the moist ruby line ran.

Moist…

Se reached out a hand, running a fingertip down the thin, cold track.

Cold…

He reached his hands in front of his eyes, too captivated by the way the red liquid leaked down his snowy fingers to notice his friends gather up around him, to answer when they called out to him.

All he was aware of was the two fat blood tears that trickled down his hands and splashed onto the grass at his feet.

Blood.

Goggles.

Blood.

Daisuke.

Blood.

His heart ached as those words echoed through his mind. He painfully slid to his knees, thinking of all the horrible things that the Kaiser could, and probably *did*, have done to Daisuke. He caressed the cold glass with his fingertips, blinking rapidly to keep back the moisture that was filling his eyes.

You're the new leader, now!

That's what he had said.

"…Daisuke…no…" He felt like trembling, more tears building up in his eyes as he picked up the item Daisuke held so dear. "What happened to you__"

There was a stunned pause, and then a look of fierceness suddenly flashed into his purple gaze, setting it on a fire that had died the same day the Kaiser disappeared from his heart and mind. "No." He tightened his hold around the goggles and jerked his head up he met the Kaiser's gaze. "Where is him? Where did you bring him?"

His words were quiet, collected, but beneath the quiet surface, the Kaiser could sense a blinding anger and a underlying indignation, twisting and simmering, thrusting to reach out.

"Aren't you worried?" he blinked, folding his arms across his chest.

"He is *alive*."

"Ahh…" the Kaiser sighed, his tone pitched to deliberate mock-wonder. "Young love. How *sweet*."

"W-what…?" Ken's shoulders jumped up and he moved backward in a protective gesture.

The Kaiser shook his head, his tone still sugary taunting. "No wonder he loves *you*, seeing how smart you are…how could you understand I didn't kill him? No, wait…or maybe you just didn't care? That's it? You thought I killed him after seeing his blood but you didn't care? Is this just a some sort of trick came out from your marvelous mind?"

Ken's eyes widened; he was so surprised to hear the Kaiser say that Daisuke loves him, that he didn't even notice that he's been clearly mocked.

"L-love…me?" Ken shook slightly his head. "He-he doesn't love…"

"Why you don't want me to say he loves you?" the Kaiser cocked his head to one side, so that the purple spikes moved from his sight. "After all, that's the destiny of the deepest feelings: be doubted." He grinned, leaning forward. "But if it hurts you, then I'll say it to you millions of times! He loves you! He loves you, Ken! With all his heart! But…" he leaned backward again, tilting his chin up. "Do you love him back? Ah! I doubt it."

"But I…"

The Kaiser was lying deliberately. He was *sure* Ken loved Daisuke, but he knew Ken wasn't still aware of his feelings. And he wanted to leave it as that.

"You don't care for him. But he care for you. And I'm somehow a part of you, am I not?" his grin grew even wider as he let wander down and place on his hips "If that's so, loving you he loves me as well…doesn't he? Now, do you think is right to part two people in love, Ichijouji? Wouldn't it be cruel? Evil? Hurting?" He slightly bent forward. His eyes narrowed and his tongue darted out his mouth to run on his lilac lips. "Just how cruel and evil life has been when it separated you from Osamu?"

Those words hit Ken with all the force of a bullet, causing him to reel backwards, as if mortally wounded.

"I…" Was all he managed to say. "…I…"

"There was so much you wanted to say. And in an instant flash...he has been taken away from you. You've learned about what came out of it, haven't you? You can never tell when a person is going to leave you." Hid digimon stepped forward and stopped at his side, glaring at the purple haired genius with an unreadable look. The Kaiser's right hand left his hip and drifted slowly upward to pat casually his digimon's muzzle. "So, wouldn't it be cruel to make me feel the same pain you once felt?"

"I…"

"What hurts the most?" the Kaiser's digimon murmured suddenly "Lose Osamu or lose Daisuke?"

The Kaiser immediately stopped his unconscious stroking and let his hand drop at his side. He flashed his digimon an angry look, but he just shrugged, taking a step forward. "Which loss hurt the most?"

Ken had to swallow his sudden confusion to find the strength to talk, but nothing of what he was thinking came out.

"I…"

"ENOUGH!!" The Kaiser yelled, outraged. How dared his digimon to betray him?? "Snimon…Go!" The Kaiser snapped his fingers and as the evil digimon emerged from behind an hill, the Kaiser's digimon quickly turned around to face his master.

"NO! Kai-Kaiser…"

All the chosen children, with the exception of Ken, leaped forward and cheered their respective digimon. But, before they could even move, the earth trembled under the meticulous work of a Drimogemon. And they couldn't do anything else than watch, helplessly and frightened, as the ground collapsed under Ken and Wormmon.

"KEN-CHAN!!!"

"WORMMON!!!!"

The two called each other's names, stretching their hands in a last, desperate attempt to touch the other's one, with the dust making their eyes burn, blurting their vision.

A thick cloud of dust rose and then, when it finally settled back down, where the purple haired boy and green worm-like digimon stood, there was just a big, floorless abyss which had swallowed both of their friends.

The silence fell, heavy and heartbreaking, over their heads.

No one dared to breath.

Not even a heart dared to not skip a beat.

No even a word dared to escape their mouths, hung open in shock.

The emperor had their leader, now.

Unexpectedly, Miyako's voice echoed thorough the now fractured valley. A voice usually high and cheerful that was now reduced to a broken whisper.

"This…this already happened…"

* * * * *

Ken opened his eyes to find that he was hanging from a cliff. And a very familiar one he could add if he would be forced to point out.But he wasn't *really* in the mood to take a note of his surroundings right now. He was way more concerned of *how* he arrived there. And *how* he could get free without crash at the bottom of the cliff.

"Ken-chan!" Ken's eyes leaped up and he found that Wormmon was chained on the cliff opposite him.

"Wormmon!!" he smiled. "Are you alright??"

"I'm fine, Ken-chan! And you?"

Ken nodded. "I'm alright, Wormmon! But now, quick! Digivolve into Stingmon and take us away!"

"Ehm…" someone coughed from above him. Ken's head jerked up and he wasn't surprised to see his D3 hanging languidly from the Kaiser's hand.

"You…"

"I think you two lost this."

"Where is Daisuke?"

The Kaiser gave his head a toss and Ken guessed –since he couldn't actually see it—he had rolled his eyes. "You're turning out to be annoying, Ichijouji."

"Where_is_him?"

With a deliberately quick but graceful toss of his wrist, the Kaiser pointed one of his glowed, slender fingers toward Ken. "Other than the fact I'm rather disappointed that you're proving to be so annoying and that I was able to capture you so easily," he bent forward, his voice reducing to a ragging hiss. "You don't seem aware of the fact you and your inutile friend there are chained to a *cliff*, which I suppose is *not* all that comfortable."

"Someone I know already survived this."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then, I suppose you don't need this, if you're so secure of yourself…" he reached his hand out, dandling Ken's black Digivice over the edge of the cliff. "Throw it or not throw it? That is the question…"

Ken frowned. Was *he* so full of himself and taunting when he was the Kaiser?! He didn't remember to be like *that*!!!

"Throw it…" The Kaiser let the dark device slid from his fingers…only to catch it a second later. "or not?"

"NO!" Ken shouted and that only made the Kaiser's grin grew wide.

"Throw it…" he hissed as evilly as he could, watching in delight the look of horror that played on Ken's face as he flowed helplessly his Digivice's fall.

"NOOOOOO!!!"

"The Digivice!!" Wormon screamed as he unsuccessfully tossed inside the chains' cold grip. "Ken-chan!"

The Kaiser broke out in an evil sneer, way more scary and chilling than the sudden loud peals of thunder thatannounced an approaching storm. The Kaiser leisurely looked up at the sky, letting out a content moan, which disturbingly resembled a purr. He stood like that, head titled backward and arms reached out at his sides until he felt the first raindrop splash on his forehead to slid down the side of his face and drop down his chin. He actually grinned when his gaze set back at Ken.

"I love it…" he smirked. "A tempest…how appropriate…have a good time, Ichijouji!" he laughed as he drew away from the edge of the cliff.

"COME BACK!" screamed Wormmon, who was still trying to get free. "YOU CAN'T LEAVE KEN-CHAN IN THE MIDDLE OF A STORM!!!"

But only an even evil laugh answered him.

Then the silence.

More thunders.

The sound of the raindrop falling quickly on the ground, gradually gaining more force with every second that passed.

Everything was black.

And cold.

The only lights were the occasional flashes of purple electricity running trough the livid sky.

Emotionally and physically exhausted, soaked wet, frozen, scratched and bruised, Ken Ichijouji could do nothing from stop the faint feeling which was quickly overwhelming him. His eyelids heaved and he could feel the energy flow out his body. He heard Wormmon's voice calling him from somewhere far away. And it was growing fainter…and fainter…as if his digimon was walking away.

The thick fog caused by his raising fever penetrated his brain, it numbed his thought. He felt shaky, weak... but he was fighting, even as he fell into the unwanted sleep. The last thing he saw before pass out, leaving a terrorized Wormmmon to scream his name behind, were Daisuke's goggles, hanging languidly around his own neck.

* * * * *

The young boy quickly looked around as he carefully made his way toward the cliff. He was at the bottom, and his eyes were darting around in search of the purple-haired boy genius and his green caterpillar. The storm had passed, leaving the land drenched and the air filled with electricity. High above him, the sky was a canvas of mauve and crimson, with brushes of golden strung across it. Evening was approaching rapidly and the faint sparkles of the stars could be seen in the sky.

He licked nervously his lips and peered around once again. He only had limited time to do what he came for.

The little digimon walked beside him, muttering something under his breath.

"*He* is going to kill us…he is *so* going to kill us…"

"Shut up!" the other hissed quietly. "And help me find them."

Instead of reply, the digimon just held out a finger and pointed something above his head, his eyes never leaving the young human's ones. The boy's head jerked up, following with his gaze the direction the stretched finger was pointing and…

"AAAAAAAH!" he screamed, trying to held his voice down to a some sort of whisper. "Ken! Wormmon!!" his head jerked down so that he was now looking into the digimon's eyes. "Quick! Do something!! We've to save Ken-chan!!!"

"Ken-chan?" the digimon raised slowly an eyebrow. "And from *when* he is Ken-chan for *you*?"

"JUST DO SOMETHING!!!"

The digimon nodded, before rush full force toward the rock wall. There he stopped, straightening his shoulders. Behind him the boy had balled his fist, and was grinning in silently cheer. A whole three minutes had passed when the digimon slowly turned around, lips quivering and big ruby eyes watering. "I'm scared of the highs…"

The boy slapped a hand against his forehead, slowly sliding it down his face in a frustrated gesture. "And from *when*??"

"..dunno…" he shook slowly his head.

"All right then…" he placed his finger on his lips, looking thoughtfully. "Our only chance is to find his Digivice, then."

"And where?" the boy grinned as he pointed silently the mud at his feet.

"Gee…why did I ask…?" he whined as he plunged into the sludge full force.

"No wait!"

"TWHATH?" the little digital ball yelled back, but it came out sort of muffed.

"We can use my own Digivice, you little twit," he tried to suppress a giggle, but it's difficult not to laugh when a ball of digital fur glares at you from inside a poll of mud. He quickly pulled the beeping device out and found a little blinking dot on the screen. It should be about thirty meters to his southeast.

He set off running down the muddy path, watching the little glowing dot converge on the center of the screen, with the little digimon growling at his side. Suddenly, the red dot meet the center of the screen, and the boy screeched to a grinding halt, causing the poor digimon to crush against his legs.

Taking long, calibrate steps forward, he finally found himself in front of a Ken's black and gray Digivice, buzzing quietly in a puddle of mud.

"Here it is!!" he shouted as he quickly grabbed it, shacking his hand to get rid of the mud. "Now…" he looked up. "We need to reach the top."

"WHAT?!" big ruby eyes widened as he splashed down onto the muddy ground.

"Gee…you can wait here…" the boy replied, as he reached out to pat the blue digimon on the head, before speed full force toward a path to the top. The digimon shook his head, walking back toward Ken and Wormmon's current position. Once there he looked up, narrowing his eyes in order to see them in the distance.

Soon, the familiar shape of his human friend loomed at the top of the cliff, and the digimon couldn't suppress the delighted yelp that rose to his lips. Carefully looking around, the boy disappeared from sight for a brief moment --during which the digimon blinked worriedly—and then he let a liana rope drop down.

Spotting Wormmon's tiny shape below him he began, slowly and carefully, to climb down the rock wall.

He managed himself very well in going down and with no effort he carefully flipped over to reach the green caterpillar.

"Please, work…" he whispered as he hold out Ken's Digivice in front of a now sleeping Wormmon. "Wormmon! Digivolve!!!" he yelled.

Wormmon's azure eyes snapped open. The first thing he saw was the Digivice held in front of him and then, in the close distance, he caught a glimpse of his Ken-chan enchained on the cliff in front of him.

"Ken-chan!!!!!!!" he yelled. "Wormmon digivolve to…STINGMON!!!!!!"

The iron chains literally crushed when the almost human, armored body replaced the little and rather plump one they were holding.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" unfortunately for the boy, when Stingmon had appeared, he had lost his hold and was now drifting further and faster toward the bottom. Suddenly, he felt a strong, yet somehow gentle pressure around him. "I died. I died and now I'm in paradise. I *died*." He cracked one eyes open. Just a little. And slowly looked around. His disbelieving mahogany eyes grew wide when they drilled into Stingmon's glassy orange ones. And he was surprised to see the flicker of confusion and happiness that crossed his face. Not able to do anything else, the boy let out a long, low, sigh, relaxing in the green digimon's hug. "Thanking God…" then his head jerked up. "Ken!!! Ken, hold on!!!"

The flying digimon let out all his rage and worry in a single attack, sending flashes of purple energy to spread out his body and light up the dark sky. It shattered the iron chains like glass. And Ken's body slowly fell further, his shoulder-length, soft hair swirled around his pale cheeks. The other boy grabbed his arm as he slipped and gently catch him as he gracefully fell in his stretched arms.

"Ken…" He whispered, and brushed a bit of his purple hair out of his amethyst eyes, burning his fingertips as they run gently trough his hot forehead. "Ken."

"Daisuke?" he whispered back, even softer. His voice too weak for even Ken himself to heard.

"Shh…" Daisuke replied as he lovingly placed his index finger on Ken's lips, now purple for the coldness. "It's okay…" he whispered. "Everything will be okay…"

And then he leaned forward, touching his lips to Ken's forehead. And the burning skin nearly bruised his lips as they came into contact. "Everything will be all right…"

"Daisuke…" he whispered, sighing softly, before drift back into a dreamless oblivion.

When Stingmon landed, he gently laid Ken down, before digivolve back into his Wormmon form. Daisukekneeled down next to Ken, and Chibimon climbed slowly up to his left shoulder to look straight at his tan face. Wormmon does the same on his other shoulder, but his eyes were fixed on a wet strand of purple hair which hunglimplyon Ken's looselyshut eyes. 

Daisuke took Ken's tiny wrist in his hand and was happy to feel his pulse, steady and quiet. Looking around, Daisuke spotted a little cave and his eyes widened briefly.

"Chibimon, Wormmon, go searching for something to eat and some *big*and *dry* leafs, all right?"

"But…" sniffled Wormmon.

"I'll take care of Ken." He added quickly. "It would be best if you'll find some fruits… and I need sweet water, too! Go, now! We've to hurry!!" Daisuke ordered as he carefully gathered Ken up, and quickly brought him toward the cave.

"Right." Nodded Chibimon and quickly went off, dragging a worried Wormmon along.

* * * * *

Daisuke looked down at Ken's unconscious body. The light of the fire was playing along his face, caressing gently his cheekbones and Daisuke had to resist this sudden urge to do the same. He bit his lower lip and with some hesitation, he reached over and brushed Ken's hair out of his eyes. Ken was still shivering. Hard.

His clothes and hair were still completely saturated with water and even being so close to the fire wasn't helping at all. Daisuke shook his head, and quickly turned away.

He couldn't do that…

But that could save Ken's life…

"What are you thinking about D'suke?"  
Daisuke looked down at his digimon, who was looking up at him with pure curiosity filling his ruby eyes. Instead of replying, he just smiled and reached an hand out to rub his belly.  
"Ehy!" He giggled. "That tickles!"

The tan skinned boy felt a soft sigh coming from his left and in return he slowly let his gaze fall downward toward the green digimon. Carefully he handed over and patted him on the head.

"Don't worry…" he whispered, and his gaze wandered around to fell on Ken's feature for a moment.

It could be his only chance to survive… shacking this thought away, Daisuke looked down at Wormmon, his cheeks flaming.

No, no, no!!! It's too embarrassing!!!!!!!!!!!! Slowly, Wormmon's eyes moved from Ken's unconscious form to look straight into Daisuke's ones. And the tan skinned boy bit his bottom lip.

HARD.

But even if it *is* embarrassing, it could save his life… His blush darkened as this thought crossed his mind. His eyes moved back to Ken's face, twisted in pain as he gasped for air.

Daisuke bit his bottom lip again and even harder than before. He was blushing even harder and now both the digimon were looking up at him, holding a silent plea of help in their steady gazes.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!" Shaking his head and spreading his hands in a futile gesture, Daisuke let out a loud yell, before jerk up to his feet like if he has been bit by a tarantula. The two digimon at his sides fell backward, yelping and just looked ashe paced toward Ken. "I *have* to do it, DAMMIT!!"

Reaching out for Ken's gray uniform, Daisuke carelessly unbuttoned it and threw it as near as he could to the fireplace. "It's for your own good!" he yelled.

As if Ken could heard him…

Then, he took care of Ken's shoes and pants. "Don't wake up, don't wake up, *don't* *wake* *up*…" he mumbled under his breath. Chibimon and Wormmon exchanged a worried look, one which said Daisuke-has-so-lost-it and then turned around in time to see Daisuke discard his own jacket, still mumbling and growling like a damned fool.

Then, he gather Ken in his arms, suddenly, but with an unimaginable gentleness. And the way that he carefully sat the slight older boy on his lap and hold him close, resembled surprisingly religious worship. Discarding his gloves, he let his bronzed fingers run through Ken's hair, before reach over to take his jacket and wrap it around Ken's shivering form. Then, with his arm tucked firmly behind Ken's back, he resumed his caresses with his free hand, blushing fiercely.

He stopped only when he noticed that Chibimon and Wormmon were now crawling toward him. He blinked as he saw them climb up his legs and curl on Ken's chest.

They had to keep him warm if they wanted him to survive the night.

And Ken *is* going to survive.

Daisuke wouldn't let it go any other way.

* * * * *

Ken woke up feeling something graze his cheek. He looked down to see Wormmon curled next to him, and it was one of his antennas that was touching his cheek. It was broad daylight, but the sunlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Daisuke's spiky headed, kneeled shape was thrust into the entrance.

"Hmm…?" he moaned tiredly.

"Morning Ken. Welcome back to the land of the living."

"Daisuke?"

Ken blinked a few times before his vision adjusted and he could make out Daisuke's outline in the morning light.

He followed the other boy with his eyes as he walked over the fire.

He tried to sit up slightly so that he could take a better look at his surroundings.

"Hey, what are you doing??" Daisuke protested, attiring Ken's purple gaze on him. "You're still to weak! You're feverish, man! Take it easy!" However Ken didn't pay attention to him, but his head jerked downward as he noticed a soft noise of leaf trembling accompanied every his movement. Looking down he found out that he was nearly naked, and big, long leafs were placed upon him as a some sort of sheets. Blinking slowly, his gaze moved up to Daisuke's now completely red face.

"Uh…" muttered Daisuke. 

Ken blinked.

"Uh…ah…ouh…you-You were freezing and that was the only way to warm you up and I…"

Ken blinked.

"W-what…?" his eyes were half-closed and were regarding the tan skinned boy with a indefinable look, now. And then…suddenly…

Suddenly Ken threw a handful of moss to Daisuke. Mud, little rocks, leafs, *Chibimon*…he threw to the other boy everything he could find out on the ground.

"Waaaaaaaaah!" Daisuke yelped as he stumbled backward and speeded out the cave on his hands and knees. He reached a big three and he swirled around, pinning his back against it, his ass on the ground. Daisuke held out his hands in front of him, while Chibimon gripped his shirt. Ken was in front of him, panting, kneeled down on the mouth of the cave, his body barely covered by a big leaf, hanging from one of his shoulders.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Ken choked out at last. Daisuke's eyes grew wider and then narrowed dangerously as he slid up the three until he was on his feet.

"Jesus Ken, I saved your life!!"

"Why it has to be *you*?!" Ken turned around, retreating inside the cavern.

"WHAT?!" Daisuke didn't know what to say. Then his own rage took the upper hand. "What's so wrong with *me* saving *you*?!"

"Do you want a list of reasons?" Ken replied, coming out the cave. He was wearing his pants now, and the shirt he intended to put on was hanging from his hands.

"What is your problem?" Daisuke yelled back, balling his fists. 

"You can't just strip someone and held them because they're comatose!!" Ken snapped, wearing on his shirt. 

"Just admit it was the only way to save you, dammit!!" 

"It wasn't!!" 

"Oh? Then tell me what else I could have done!!" 

"I don't know!!" 

"Then stop yelling!!" 

"I'm *not* yelling!!" 

"You're!!" 

"I'm not!!" 

"You're!!!" 

"I'm not! And beside, the one who is yelling is you!" 

"No!" 

"Yes!" 

"NO!!" 

"YES!!"

They both looked deep into each others eyes, not wanting to look away. But Ken was still weak and a little feverish, and soon he found himself shivering, suddenly very cold. He had to look away, placing an hand on his forehead, and chewing gently on his bottom lip.

"Oww…" he moaned softly. Then he shivered again and felt faint, his knees failing to hold him up. 

"Hey, you alright?" Daisuke asked, wide eyed, and wrapped his arms around the other boy's waist, gently sitting him to the soft grassy ground. They both sat down, one against the rock wall and the other against the big tree, and the sudden silence prevailed.

"Well thanks," Ken whispered sarcastically and Daisuke mid-glared at Ken. Or maybe he really glared, Ken wasn't sure.

"What's the problem with you??"

"I didn't want *you* to see me naked!" Ken snapped, turning away from Daisuke's brown, steady gaze.

"What?" Daisuke blinked in sudden surprise. Was Ken *blushing*?? "It's not like you've got anything I haven't seen before…" 

"Ah-ah. Not funny" Ken replied, trying to sound dry, but instead he just sounded very, *very* uncomfortable. 

"Ken?" Daisuke blinked rapidly, making evident his inner confusion. "What's wrong with me seeing you naked?" 

Ken swirled around, so that he was now facing Daisuke. "Jesus Daisuke, you lo---" Ken bit his bottom lip, cutting his own sentence off. What was he about to say? 'I don't want you to see me naked cause there is this rumor that you love me?'. Oh, very smart… 

"I?" 

"Nothing. Never mind." Ken said with a sigh. 

"But Ken…" 

"It was nothing…" 

"…" 

"…"

Chibimon,who had now been joined by Wormmon, sat on the ground, blinking quickly as he watched them. Then he shook his head, and the green digimon at his side did just the same.

Ken sighed, playing with some blades of grass. He looked up at the morning sky. Reflecting the azure sky, his eyes shifted to a soft tone of blue, just like the shade of the calming sea after a storm. Daisuke turned his face a little and got caught in Ken's purple-blue eyes. He felt like he would fall into them. Such beautiful eyes…They sparkled in the sunlight and danced like the water of a quiet river.

"I suppose it's time for us to go home…" Ken whispered.

Daisuke looked away, shifting uncomfortably. He looked up at Chibimon in search of help, but the little thing just shook his head.

Great! Daisuke thought. Just great.

"Uhm…Ken…" he muttered.

"yeah?" he sighed.

"I…uhm…can't…come back…yet."

"What??" the purple haired boy jerked up in a sitting position. "Why??"

"I…I…" Daisuke shook his head. "It's hard to explain. You wouldn't understand…" 

"Try me." Ken interrupted, sort of angrily. "I deserve an explanation!" 

"Ken, you can't understand!" 

"WHY?!" Ken's s eyes flared with anger, and he turned slightly so that he could look at Daisuke straight in the face.

"That's something between me and him!! I want you to stay out of this!!" He looked up at the other boy, and the warm wind stirred Ken's purple hair to blow freely around his face and tickle tauntingly Daisuke's cheeks.

"And why?! He is part of me, after all!!" his usually quiet voice was quickly raising.

"Ken, how can you be so blind?! Can't you see he is different now?" Daisuke narrowed his eyes, and moved his face right up to Ken, so their noses were almost touching. "Stay out of this! It has nothing to do with you!"

"It has!"

"NO! Go away, Ken!"

"Try to make me leave, then!"

The two glared at each other, their eyes down to thin slits. All around them went dead silent and even their digimon weren't really sure of what was happening.

And suddenly, the most amazing thing happened.

Which one started it, neither of the two knew, but Ken's and Daisuke's lips touched briefly.

When they slowly pulled away, flushing and looking at each other with mid-closed eyes, it was just for a second. And then, almost as if a magnetic force was pulling them together, they moved forward, and their lips caught in a soft, magnetic touch once again.

At first their lips just grazed each other's, but then Daisuke cupped his hands around Ken's cheek and delicately pressing his thumbs in the soft flesh, he parted Ken's lips and immersed his tongue into his mouth, licking at every inch of it. And then Ken was kissing him back, his hands sliding up Daisuke's chest and neck to tangle in Daisuke's spiky hair. 

Daisuke's hands brushed across Ken's cheeks, down to his neck and shoulders, then, tracing their way down his sides and sliding around his waist, they crushed the other boy against him. Ken couldn't suppress a moan as the kiss deepened. The warm tongue exploring his mouth, and the warm body pressing hard against his made his mind clouded.He couldn't help it...he moaned loudly into the tan skinned boy's mouth while one of his hands smothered Daisuke's spikes and gently snaked around the base of his neck, forcing their lips even closer, to add more sensations at the surprisingly wonderful onslaught. Unable to think, Daisuke let his hands run up and down Ken's spine, tracing lazy circles with his nails.

They relished the kiss, memorizing and anticipating every sensation, every movement, every sound, smell and touch. 

It was at once frightening and incredibly exciting. 

And they both would have gladly remained like that for the rest of their lives.

As their kiss went on, both their digimon could feel something…unidentifiable, wash over them. They shuddered, at once frightened and happy. The world spun crazily in front of their wide eyes and suddenly their backsides collided with the grassy ground. They tried to stumble up to their feet, unsuccessfully, and then they glance at each other, sharing and helpless look that told each one the other had felt too those strange waves of…something.

Ken and Daisuke suddenly remembered the need to breath and reluctantly pulled some inches back from each other, glowing for happiness and panting in fear. They shared a dreamy look, their vision fuzzy and unfocused.When realization of what just happened dawned on them, both boys on the ground immediately leaped apart.

Ken looked away, placing a hand over his heart, which was beating so rapidly, it felt as if it would explode out of his rib cage.

Daisuke looked away as well, but soon his eyes flinched upward and he studied the other boy, trying to understand his thoughts.

A minute of silence passed before Daisuke cleared his throat.

"Ken…" he whispered. "You'd better go."

Ken felt the embarrassment cover him like a blanket and he nodded wordlessly, absently standing up, light headed and kind of tired.

"Yeah…" Daisuke shivered at the emptiness dripping through Ken's usually sweet voice. And he sighed, as tears stung his passion glazed eyes. 

Their digimon hopped at their respective human's side. Ken stared blankly down at Wormmon curiosity-filled eyes, while Daisuke took his Chibimon in his arms. When the tan skinned boy stood up, his eyes and Ken's met, wide in wonder and astonishment.

The trip from the cave to the nearest portal was silent, uncomfortable, but they eventually made it to the window to the real world. To the door which could bring Ken back home. Chibimon hopped down Daisuke's arms and bounced toward his green friend. Then he threw a quick glance at Daisuke, who smiled, before turn toward Wormmon.

Leaning forward he gave the other digimon a quick peek on the cheek. When he pulled away he saw Worrmon blinking, adorably bemused, because he didn't know why his friend had done that.

"What was that?"

"A kiss!" the other giggled softly.

"I know, but…why?" he tilted his head, dancing his antennas. The blue digimon shrugged, smiling sweetly.

"D'suke once sad that to say goodbye to a really good friend you can kiss them."

"Goodbye?"

"Yeah." Chibimon nodded. "For…a…while."

Ken and Daisuke, who were both looking down at their digimon, happened to look up at the same time and their eyes linked.

"…Daisuke…?"

"Ken…go. Just go." He sighed.

The purple haired boy took one last glance at Daisuke, before turn around toward his way back home. He took a step forward and held his Digivice out. Wormmon hopped onto his shoulder and looked down to a smiling Chibimon, still wondering.

"DIGIPORT OPEN!" he yelled. Then he swirled around. "Daisuke, I…" Ken was cut off by the warm lips of Daisuke against his in a fiery, long kiss. A kiss that Ken gladly returned. There was no hesitation now, but that one kiss tasted as something like sadness. Desperation. The slightly younger groaned, a hand coming up to tangle in Ken's hair, the other cupping his pale cheek. Daisuke tongue swept across Ken's bottom lip, and traced his teeth, curling around Ken's tongue.

His and Ken's tongue collided, danced in time to the quick, thumping rhythm of their hearts beating at unison again, like they were meant to do. Ken's tongue caressed gently Daisuke's, silently promising him something both of them weren't still prepared to say. To hear. Or even to admit.

Daisuke relished this second kiss, gripping desperately to every sensation -- the way Ken's lips faintly taste of mango, the gentleness with which their tongue met, the liquid touch, the burning sensation inside his heart – committing everything to memory.  
  


Suddenly Daisuke pulled his lips away.

"That felt like…goodbye…Daisuke, you…"

Daisuke smiled and thrust something into Ken's hand. His fingers closed over his paler ones and suddenly he let the other boy go, pushing him backwards inside the portal.

While falling backward, Ken got a glimpse of what he was holding and his breath get caught in his throat.

Daisuke's blue Digivice was beeping quietly in his hand.

"Daisuke!" he yelled, reaching a hand out for the other boy; but he didn't reach out to catch his stretched hand, thought. He stood still, smiling sadly, his lips slightly parted, but nothing coming out. Looking away for a fraction of a second, he squinted his eyes shut. Then his head jerk up, and their eyes met. And to his horror, Ken realized Daisuke's ones were watery.

"Ken! Don't ever come back here! Trap me there and forget me!!"

"DAISUKE!!"

"I can take care of the Kaiser alone, Ken!" he tentatively reached a hand out, only to let it drop at his sides a moment later. "Forget me, Ken! Forget me!!"

"DAISUKEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!" He cried out, grasping at the air, eyes shut closed.

* * * * * *

Ken reopened his eyes only when the world stopped to fee like spinning around him. He frantically looked around, immediately recognizing the place where he had landed as the computer lab of Odaiba elementary school. He jerked up to his feet, grabbing the computer monitor in his hands. 

"Stupid!" he yelled to the buzzing screen. "Stupid, Daisuke!! Stupid!!!"

* * * * * 

Meanwhile, in the digital world, Daisuke was still in front of the closed portal which had took Ken away. He looked around, wrapping his arms around himself against the chilly wind that ruffled playfully his hair. In the distance, he could make out the looming image of the Kaiser's base and he couldn't suppress a little shiver at that sight. 

"Let's go home…" he sighed, walking toward the dark tower. 

"Hai…" sighed Chibimon at his side. Then he leaped up and settled comfortably in Daisuke's arms. 

"Ehy, what's this?" he laughed. "Are you jealous?" 

"No…it's just I…" Daisuke noticed that his digimon was shivering now. In a way he had never seen him shiver before. "Chibimon?" 

"Daisuke, I…" 

"Going somewhere, Daisuke my dear?" the cold, low purr literally froze Daisuke dead in his spot. And scared, he discovered he was shivering in a way similar to Chibimon's. He had to swallow his fear to find enough voice to reply. 

"Home." 

"Home?" 

Daisuke growled, gritting his teeth hard enough to break them. 

"To your base, Kaiser. Home." He said, but his eyes were very angry. 

"oh…" 

Daisuke balled his fists and slowly restated to walk. "It didn't please me you spent the whole night with that annoying guy, Daisuke." The Kaiser's voice filled Daisuke's ears with thunder. And once again the spiky haired boy was paralyzed, breathing quickly and swallowing in fear and hate. 

"So? What do you want to do now?" he laughed bitterly, raising his voice to deliberate sarcasm. "Punish me? Whip me till I'm dead?" 

The Kaiser laughed and Chibimon jumped down from Daisuke's arms, ready to hide under the nearest rock. His laugh was chilly, paralyzing…the unmelodious sound of crushing crystal. 

"Oh, no!" he chuckled, evidently amused. "You served me so good! Why should I punish you?" 

In the horrid pain and surprise of the moment, Daisuke's eyes grew wide and he unconsciously looked down at his hands. 

"…I…?" 

Laughing hoarsely, the Digimon Kaiser lowered his voice to a low hiss, not too louder than the soft whistle you can produce running a fingertip trough textured satin. "Oh my…did you thought you managed to let him escape?" he chuckled, an evil sound which broke trough Daisuke's heart as easy as an hot blade could pass through butter. "It was all part of my plan, Daisuke…" 

"Your…plan?" Daisuke swallowed. What had he done? 

"Yes…my plan to achieve your return…" he purred, his voice caressing Daisuke's ear. "your return to the digidestined…" 

Daisuke grinned, narrowing his eyes. "But I threw away my Digivice…" 

Though his words were unheeded, or simply unheard, this single statement was followed by the unpleasant echo of the digimon Kaiser's evil laugh fluttering trough the chilly air. Daisuke took a single look to Chibimon, who was still at his feet, and then shot a glance over the clearing and then up to the sky, beyond the clouds and higher beyond them. 

"I THREW AWAY MY DIGIVICE! I CAN'T COME BACK TO THE REAL WORLD!!" 

Once again the digimon Kaiser laughed and Daisuke couldn't help but grit his teeth. 

"…that won't stop me, my Daisuke…" his whisper echoed thorough Daisuke's very being, setting his soul on the bitter fire of horror. "It will be just a matter of time…" he breathed, his voice dripping malice, feeling Daisuke's breath shallow in apprehension. "…before your return…my Daisuke…" 

He burst into a glorious laugh, then, one which emptied Daisuke of all his force, leaving him to shiver, kneeled down in the soft grass. 

=========================================

To be continued in part 05: The Game 

**Nemesi = So? Did ya like it? ^_^ **

**Daisuke = ::grabs Nemesi's shoulders and shakes her:: Why do you always have to make me do stupid things??? Why did I trap myself in the digital World?!?!?!!?!?!?!!?!?!!? ::whines:: **

**Ken = ::patting gently Daisuke's back:: Don't worry…we'll come and save you… ::glares at Nemesi::right?! **

**Nemesi = ::gets pale:: ehm…*coughnotexactlycough* **

**Daisuke and Ken = WHAT?! **

**Nemesi = ::scratching the back of her head:: We-well…didn't ya read what the Kaiser said? Daisuke will return to the earth… **

**Ken = ::blinks:: **

**Daisuke = ::stares:: **

**Nemesi = TRUST ME FOR ONCE!!!!! ::sweatdrops:: eh…se ya in the next chapter minna! ^^ **


	5. Shattered Mirror - part 5 - Game

Game **Disclaimer = I do not own digimon…if I did then I would be writing Kensuke fics 'cause Kensuke would be official ^_^ **

I hope ya'll like this…but I've to tell you something before you'll go on… ::coughs:: there are some hints of one-sided ::coughs:: Miyasuke… ::ducks flying object:: No, no!!! Don't shot!!! It's one sided and I needed to put those hints in to make the story work… ^^;; Don't worry, Daisuke doesn't like her more than as a friend… 

**… **

**… **

**at most you could start to worry 'cause he is beginning to like the Kaiser… o.O **

** **

**Warning = I wrote this when I was feverish…beware of what my brain could have gave birth to… ^^;; **

Shattered mirror  Part 05 – Game 

Ken took and uncertain step on the sidewalk. He moved forward experimentally, testing his own strength. Placing a second, hesitant step forward, Ken grimaced and rested his sweaty palm against the cold wall, interrupting his heavy panting only to lick his lips. 

His vision was blur, and his mind was fogged by a thick, dark mist that slowed down his usually sharp mind, forcing him to think over every single movement, even the simplest ones. Blood pounded in his ears, and in his mind resound the maddening sound of broke bells, merged with one of hammers falling down rhythmically. 

He took a shaking step forward only to nearly fall to the ground when his leg gave up on him. Bringing a trembling hand up to his forehead, he wasn't surprised to find it burning. He swallowed, and squinted his eyes closed, trying to gain enough strength to move forward another step. Cracking his eyes open when he felt the soft pat at the side of his leg, his eyes linked with a pair of sad blue ones. They blinked up at him with worry and sadness dancing within them. A soulful look that left Ken shocked for a moment. 

The boy tried to smile down at the poor digimon, but all he could manage was a faint hint of a smile which only made Wormmon's worry increase. Ken looked forward again, focusing on the blurred shadows that just a few seconds before were the street and the houses. His lids drifted slowly and he took another step forward through mid-closed eyes. His hand slid through the cold marble of the wall as he, at a snail's pace, dragged himself along toward his house. 

Neglecting to answer Wormmon's persistent cries of worry, Ken kept on drag himself along for several blocks, until in front of him loomed the blurred vision of white which was the apartment complex where he lived. Regarding the blurred vision in front of him with a small smile, the purple haired boy slowly made his way inside the building and to the elevator. When he reached it, he rested all his weight on its door, thoughtlessly pushing the 'call' button. He turned around, so that is back was against the elevator's door, and whipped his head backward, inhaling air through ragged breaths. 

With a buzzing sound the elevator reached Ken and when the door opened, he stumbled backward, immediately rolling over one side and clenching his stomach, curling in a foetal position. Wormmon, being the over-worried digimon he was, rushed to his human partner's side, patting him gently on one side as he started to cough wildly. Frantically looking around for any kind of help, the green worm spotted the button filled panel that loomed above him. 

He remembered seeing Ken use that 'thing' to make the elevator move and so, with a surprisingly agile jump, he pressed the '8th floor' button. The door closed, and with a tremble the elevator started his slow journey toward Ken's salvation. His home. 

Tumbling backward and rolling over to Ken, Wormmon jumped up, patting the purple haired boy's back as he started to moan. It was getting worse, and the poor digimon didn't know what to do at all. His big blue eyes were shining for the unshed tears and he could ear his heartbeat thump wildly in his own ears. And as the irrepressible fear slowly inundated his heart, he couldn't help but remember Chibimon's words. 

_//A Goodbye// _he had said. _//For a while// _

After experiencing that goodbye, the digimon didn't want to say goodbye to anyone else. He didn't want to be parted form people he loved. And he couldn't bear to be parted from Ken. 

"Ken-chan…" he whispered, his voice husky for the tears. 

Ken opened his eyes a little, smiling softly at his digimon. "…don't…worry…Worm…mon…" he managed in a ragged breath. Then, all of a sudden, he hunched over, holding his stomach and moaning in pain. 

"KEN-CHAN!" the little digimon was getting scared. His friend was in pain and all he could do was watch, unable to help him at all. When finally, a glowing '8' appeared on the elevator's display panel with a soft 'twink', Wormmon's head shot up and he did the first thing that came in his mind. 

He screamed for help. 

* * * * * 

Chibimon scuffed over the dark marble floor, approaching quietly his human partner. He was sitting on a corner, his legs up to his chest and his arms around them, hands on his feet. His chin was placed on his knees and he was dandling himself back and forth, his narrowed eyes fixed on the black shadows in front of him. 

He was muttering something that Chibimon couldn't make out, not even by moving closer to the boy. 

"D'suke?" 

"Damn me." 

"What?" Chibimon's head jerked backward and he blinked quickly his scarlet eyes. 

"Damn me." He repeated, tilting his head to give his friend a distant glare. His eyes were rimmed with red and his face was flushed, juts as he had been crying. "I'm such an idiot." He looked forward again , gazing intently at the thick shadows he was facing, as if there was something playing trough them. Chibimon followed his partner's gaze and blinked, seeing nothing special in the darkness. Then, tilting his head sideways, he placed his eyes back on the tan skinned face, blinking again. 

He didn't even need to open his mouth that the boy was already answering his question. 

"I accepted the Kaiser's offer to help, then betrayed him and helped my friends, and now I've trapped both of us there…" he sighed, placing his forehead on his knees. 

"D'suke?" 

"Hm?" 

"What do you think of the Kaiser…?" Daisuke's head jerked up for a brief moment, before fall down once again. 

"I…don't know." He shook his head slowly, the brown spikes tickling the skin of his knees. "At first I thought about him as Ken…then as a new enemy…then he has been my saviour…" Daisuke sighed, shifting his feet and tapping the toes on the dark marble. "Then I hated him for hurting Ken…But now…" the cinnamon haired boy's eyes flickered up focusing on a huge crack that run through the pavement, just a couple of centimetres at his left. "as he can read my heart I can read his, Chibi…he is so alone…so lost…so desperate…" 

"You don't hate him anymore?" Chibimon twitched his ears, cocking his head to a side. "Do you like him, then?" 

"…" 

Chibimon blinked, big ruby eyes focused on a pair of rich brown ones. 

"…I…I don't know." Daisuke shook his head slowly, resuming his slow dandle. "…but I think I do, in a way." 

* * * * * 

Ken half opened his eyes as he felt being moved. He looked up through his eyelashes at his mother's worried face, and shifting his gaze around he was surprised to notice he was in his bed, his parents' worried faces hovering above him and Wormmon at his side, laying limply on his bed as a stuffed tool. 

"…mom…?" he tested his voice, triggering a strangled yelp from his mother. 

"Ken-chan! Dear!" She lovingly ran a hand through his features, cupping his cheek with unimaginable sweetness. "…How are you feeling?" 

Ken weakly mouthed a 'fine' and blinked tiredly. His father smiled warmly down at him, nodding slightly his head. "Hai. You *do* look a little better. Did you have a good sleep?" 

"…Yes…" Ken whispered sleepily, his words slightly mispronounced because of his tongue feeling thick and dry. 

"…do you want to go back to sleep, darling?" his mother whispered, her voice dripping that kind of caring and concern that just a mother's voice can express. 

Ken nodded slightly and shifted into a more comfortable position. His lids slowly dropped, hiding his eyes halfway, but they squinted closed as a sudden fit of coughs racked his thin body. 

"Ken-chan? Ken-chan?" 

"I'm…fine…m-mom…" he said between coughs. 

"No, son…it doesn't seems to me you're fine…" his father's eyes became solemn as he placed a hand on his son's forehead. "You're burning up…" 

"I'm…I'm…fine…" he moaned, before starting to cough harder. 

His eyes softened a little. "You need to rest, Ken…"

Ken finally agreed with a weak nod, and then let loose of soft moan of pain. He gasped in some ragged breaths, but air seemed to not to go down. The thin body shifted a little, so that it was now facing the ceiling again. 

Ken's whole form was racked by hard shivers and his cheeks were even paler than usual. His parents shared a worried look and then his mother's caring hands grabbed the corners of a blanket and pulled it up to cover the shaking boy. 

"Ken-chan…?" his mother asked, her voice cracking a little. 

"…hm…?" 

"do you want something to eat?" 

He shook slightly his head, mouthing a silent 'no'. His mother smiled and traced his features with her fingertip. 

Reaching his chin, she noticed at last the broken goggles hanging down the thin neck. She reached out to touch them but Ken jerked away. Blinking cluelesslly, the woman wrapped her fingers around the broken item and tried to pull it away. 

"…what's this thing, darling? You can't sleep with a broken glass near your neck! It's dangerous! Wear it off…" 

Snowy white finger curled over hers, and the woman gasped, surprised by the force of the iron grip those skinny fingers could manage. 

"…Ken?" 

"…no…" he sniffled, then coughed. The coughs shook hardly his body, but his vise-like grip on his mother's hand didn't even soften. "…don't take it away from me…" he managed to cry out between sobs. His thin body, already shacked by the heavy shudders of the fever and by the tremors of his heavy coughs, was now shacking out of…fear. And his chest was heaved by mournful sobs. On his face, was the shimmering trace of streaming tears and in his eyes, so lost and far before, was now a blinding sparkle. 

A flash of fear and determination rimmed with pure rage, an emotion that, into those kind eyes, was out of place. But even if the rippled rage didn't belong in those usual clear eyes, it was making them shine with a force she had never seen before. 

She didn't know that those goggles were so important to her son, but obviously they were. 

He seemed to care a lot for that old, broken item and she couldn't take it away from him. 

And deep inside, a far as possible form he conscious thoughts, she was *scared*. 

Scared by how those enraged eyes could react if she tried again to take those goggles away. 

"…all right, Ken-chan…" she loosened her grip around the goggles and immediately her hand was free again. She looked down at the goggles and took a better look at them. Suddenly, she remembered those goggles…weren't they…weren't they…Daisuke's? 

She murmured her question softly, quietly…so inaudibly that she herself couldn't hear her own words. The woman cleared her throat, ready to ask again, but when her son threw himself on her arms, sobbing uncontrollably, she had not only the certainty she had been heard, but she had her answer as well. 

The goggles were Daisuke's. 

But with this answer, unbidden, came the answer to another question she hadn't had the force to ask. 

Has something happened to Daisuke? 

Yes. 

Yes it has. 

* * * * * 

Miyako Inoue looked around the lifeless room that had become her last refuge. Her hazel eyes shifted around before fall back on the ticket she held loosely in her hands. Sighing painfully she let it slid out her hand and watched fascinated as it fell noiselessly on the floor. 

Her eyes narrowed perceptively, but the distant look on her face didn't change. 

Reaching out a hand, she switched off the light and was now enfolded in a thick blanked of darkness. This gave her the illusion to be blind, so that she won't have to see the cruel torture the journals and television. 

It had been two weeks. And the media still talked about the disappearance of 'Daisuke Motomiya, great hope of the young Japanese football, dear friend and beloved son.' 

Miyako smiled bitterly at this, her usual kind features twisted in look of hatred and sorrow. How dared them to talk about him like he was already dead?! If they thought he was, then *why* they kept on torturing the ones who cared for him like this?! Searching for him and fanning fake hopes? 

He was gone, she knew that, but because he had trapped himself in another universe. To save them. To save them all. 

_//To save Ken…// _

Miyako frowned at the little voice in her head. Yeah…he trapped himself in the digital world to save Ken…but he would have done the same for *everyone* else, right? 

_//Right.//_ the voice replied and Miyako smiled proudly. _//He is that kind of boy…he had sacrificed himself for his friend's sake…not only for Ken's…// _Miyako nodded slightly, trying not to think about what happened that fateful night when Daisuke saved Ken's life. 

Something had happened, she was sure of this, but Ken wouldn't tell her. He wouldn't tell anyone, for that matter. But something *did* happen. Something that made his usual snowy cheeks turn into a rosy pink, and his clear blue eyes sparkle. 

Shacking her head clear of those thoughts, the lavender haired girl slowly stood up, and looked around. 

Once she hated the darkness, but now she could say she loved it. It protected her from all the lies thatKen, the digidestined and the media were all telling her. It provided her with a private world where she could dream about freeing Daisuke. 

She moved forward slowly, her arms stretched out, and dragging her feet. After five dragged steps, her palms connected with the cold stone of the wall. Raising a knee experimentally, she touched it to something soft. Was it her bed? 

She smiled. 

Yes, it was. 

Her knee wandered over it for a couple of seconds before jerk down and leave the girl free to fall limply on the soft mattress. She moved blindly her hands up to her pillow and balled her fist around it, biting her bottom lip. 

After Ken's return and after knowing about Daisuke trapping himselfin the other dimension, the digidestined had fight for long, unsure on how to proceed. At last, they had decided to wait and gather information before try and save Daisuke. 

Didn't they care for Daisuke enough to rush to the digital lands and free him? 

//No…we love Daisuke, but in order to not waste his sacrifice, we need to be strong enough to beat the Kaiser at the first fight…// 

Were they all so scared?! 

_//No…we're moving slowly for Daisuke's sake …// _

Lies. 

It was all a bunch of lies. 

The truth was that they preferred to sacrifice one to save the others. Plain and simple. Sacrifice one life to save thousands. Oh yes, mathematically the speech made sense, but… 

…how about Daisuke? 

His feelings? 

His life? 

Was this really the right thing to do? 

Miyako was sure not. 

Her eyes welled up with tear and there, in the safety that her shadowed room provided her, the digidestined of Love and Sincerity wept silently. 

* * * * * 

Iori knocked softly at Miyako's door for the third time. 

A soft noise was coming from inside the room. He knocked softly on the door and whispered, "Miyako-san?" 

No answer.  
He softly rapped his knuckles against the door once again. 

"Miyako-san, please open the door…"  
There still was no reply. He put his ear onto the door, hoping he could hear a hint that she was doing anything and make out what that muffled sound he could hear was. 

Then the dawning realization hit him. 

It was the sound of faint sobbing. 

Sighing, the digidestined of Knowledge and Reliability placed his fingers round the doorknob and squeaked the door open. 

"…Miyako-san?" He didn't see anything at first, but he narrowed his eyes, waiting for them to get used to the thick darkness. Slowly, he could make out the her shape. The lavender haired girl was laying face down on her bed, head hidden in the pillow. She looked as if she'd been crying for weeks. 

"Leave me alone..." She said coldly. 

"The other are waiting for us, Miyako-san…" he swallowed, not really sure how to deal with those seemingly endless tear of hers.Her crying burned a hole through his heart and he didn't know what to do to stop all this pain. He was at a loss of words. 

And he was supposed to be the smart and reliable one… 

"I don't wanna come…"  
"Miyako-san…" 

"This is stupid." 

A sigh. 

"Please Miyako-san…don't act as a child…" 

She glared up at him, hazel eyes shining with tears. "And why? I *can* act as a child as much as I want." A pause, during which she took care of a loose strand of lavender hair fallen between her eyes. Impatiently, she blew at it, with the only results that more strands fell back into her eyes. She moved them all away with a grunt. "And I'll definitely *do* it." She slammed her head back on the pillow and Iori rolled his eyes. 

"Miyako-san we've to go…" 

"Don't wanna." She said, but it come out a little muffled due to the soft cloth blocking her voice. "And it *is* stupid." 

"Every single one of us will be there, Miyako-san." 

"I don't care. And this is still stupid." The younger boy sighed again. 

"Please…" he paused unsure of what to say. "Do it for Daisuke…" he tried, and was happily surprised to see that it had some sort of effect. 

Miyako's head jerked upward at this, lavender hair swirling around it in a eclectic dance. "…I…" 

"Please…" he begged, coming closer and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "This soccer game was so important for Daisuke…" 

He eyes shifted and she cast a sideway look at the ticket now visible on the ground. "…I…" 

"Please…" 

She sighed, shaking her head. "Alright." She stated quietly as she slowly stood up. Her eyes focused on the light in the corridor, a shocking contrast with the shadows within her room. She let loose a soft sigh, pacing slowly toward the door. "…you'll repay me for this, Dai-chan…as soon as you'll come back…" 

* * * * * 

Ken sighed deeply, tapping his tiptoe in the mud. He looked around, visibly nervous, and licked his lips as his eyes fell on the poster that hang down limply at the entrance of the little stadium. 

"Daisuke Motomiya's memorial game" 

His eyes narrowed into tiny slides and he jerked around, suddenly interested in the poll of mud at his feet. 

'Memorial' game. 

'Memorial'. 

That word made him sick. 

Reaching a hand up, he softly traced the crack that ran across one glass of Daisuke's goggles, hanging loosely down his neck. 

'Memorial' game?! 

'Memorial'?! 

Daisuke was still alive for crying out loud!! But no, his team-mates just *had* to change the most important game of the season into something to remind him by. 'He was so excited about this game!' they had said. 'He would be so happy!!" they added. Figure, as if they would happy to have a memorial game while they're still alive. They would at least be upset. That, to put it lightly… 

Fingers still dancing across the glass of the goggles, warmed by the sunrays, Ken's eyes flickered up and he surveyed slowly the whole area. Today, for the first time in years the Odaiba high school team was playing against Tamachi. Ken's eyes turned to the poster for a second, focusing on the red capitalised name. 

'Daisuke Motomiya.' 

All of a sudden, he had this bewildering need to run away. To go back home, lay on his bed and sleep. 

Forever. 

He wanted it with all his mind, more than anything else in the world. 

Maybe he wanted it even more than how he wanted to see Daisuke, but the purple haired boy wasn't sure about that. 

Surely, he wanted to be at home more than how he wanted to be there, in the middle of the soccer field, wearing his soccer uniform. 

Ken sighed, his heart suddenly heavy. 

No, it wasn't his own the soccer uniform he was wearing. It was *his*. 

Daisuke's. 

Ken took in a laboured breath, with the strange sensation that time had bend over under its own weight. His back burned as crazy and his chest wasn't in better conditions. And all because he couldn't bear the faint sensation of Daisuke's oversized shirt brushing his skin. It had his name written on both the back and upon his heart, and that was were it hurt the most. 

It burned. 

It really did. 

It has been his friends' voices to abruptly bring him back to reality. And even if he was startled, he was glad to be back to his senses. With a faint smile playing over his lips, he waved back at the didigestined, who were waving happily at him from the bleachers. He dropped his hand then, when the wind started to blow. He stood still just for few moments, hearing intently the sound of his own heartbeat and the far murmurs of the crowd, then his hands brushed gently the front of Daisuke's shirt, tracing the printed letters of his name. 

D. 

A. 

I. 

S. 

U. 

K. 

E. 

His fingers crawled like a spider over the name and then dropped down and, atrangely enough, a weird and wonderful calm sneaked inside him, like a fresh torrent of azure water. His heartbeat increased and -that was really puzzling- seemed to have developed a twin and to be thumping along with it inside his chest. 

Ken's eyes opened slowly and he turned around, scanning the field to study his former companions, his opponents in this single game. There was Jude, Hiroshi, Rei, Takashi… 

Ken blinked, when he noticed there was no one at playing the role he had left vacant. No one was playing right forward, and the area almost directly in front of him was completely desert. He curved slowly one eyebrow, casting a quizzical look at one of the Tamachi's player. Akira –that was the boy's name– shrugged and mouthed an uninterested "dunno." Ken's other eyebrow joined his twin up and he looked quizzically at his own team. He surveyed them all and then placed his eyes on the digidestined, who were shifting uncomfortably in the bleachers. 

What was happening? 

Was the Tamachi planning to play ten against eleven? 

TODAY of all the days?! 

And leaving *his* role free?! 

Ken looked down once again, kicking absent-mindly the ground. 

That wasn't fair. 

Then he sighed, balling slowly his hands into loose fists. 

But maybe it was better that way. 

He had accepted to take Daisuke's place in his team, and was looking forward for the game to start, but he wasn't sure if he could bare to play against someone that wasn't Dai. 

Ken's look darkened, shame showed over his handsome features, and nibbled gently his bottom lip. 

No matter what they said about all this being done for Dai. He was doing this for no other than he himself. If he was there, it was because this reminded him the first time he and Daisuke played together. He wanted to live it again, and just like he was playing Daisuke's role he couldn't bare to see anyone else but Dai playing his own. 

He smiled faintly, replaying that day's events in his head over and over, the sound of his heartbeat still resounding in his ears. He slowly looked up as he heard soft cried escape the mouths of the digidestined. Ken looked up, only to discover that a soft black mist had descended, and was now floating throughout all those who were present, tugging playfully at their clothes. Ken took a step backward and swallowed as he realized no one but the digidestined seemed aware of the translucent fog. He could see it ruffle the hairs of whoever it could reach, tugging at their clothes and raising soft clouds of dirt; but he couldn't *feel* it. Smell it. Touch it, or sense it. He could just see it and what it was doing. And no one but he and the digidestined seemed aware of its presence, either. 

It was the same mist that had surrounded Daisuke when he first fell under the Kaiser's spell. 

Eyes widening in stunning realization, the purple haired boy was ready to rush to the locker room and grab his D-3when he became aware of a scream coming from middle of the bleachers. Just where the digidestined were, he remembered as he jerked around. 

The scream was Miyako's. She was up on her feet, hand clasped over her mouth, tears streaming down her cheeks. But what stunned Ken weren't those tears or the force of her scream. It was the strange look on her face, a mix of hope and fear that was barely describable. Following her gaze, Ken turned around once again, his heart still pounding alongside with its soft echo. 

Miyako's scream built up into a fast crescendo, as the form slowly loomed within the dark fog, but Ken just stood speechless, unable to move at all. 

It was far, and a unfocused for the mist, but it was a form Ken couldn't stop from recognizing. He would have recognized the one who was slowly approaching him even in a billions years, even between dozen billions of people. 

"Daisuke…?" he whispered, so quietly it resembles the sound of a petal falling on the ground. 

The boy stepped quietly toward him, his arms dangling at his sides and his head moving slightly around. He exited the fog hesitantly, tentatively, as if it was all a dream. His chin raised and his eyes closed, the boy stepped even closer, his shoulders raising and falling gently and mesmerizing with every step he took. 

Ken swallowed hard as the boy stopped, raising his lids to let chocolate brown eyes lock on his. 

"…Ken…" he smiled. It was a soft smile at first, but then it developed in a full, proud grin. 

He seemed so real. So...Daisuke. 

Brown hair, holding a hint of red resemblance to a burning flames within; deep brown eyes; bronzed skin; dressed up in Ken's Tamachi uniform… 

Ken swallowed again as the boy stepped even closer. He looked like him. Sounded like him. Moved like him. Grinned like him. 

The tan skinned boy stepped closer and walked past Ken. 

//God, he even *smells* like him.// Ken thought, closing his eyes in sudden bliss. 

The boy stepped almost regally through the field, grinning openly up at the digidestined in the bleaches.He silently took his place in front of Ken and waved his hand to the other chosen children, who were now reduced to silence by their own surprise. 

"…Daisuke…?" Ken chocked out at last, and immediately the auburn eyes were back on him. Daisuke's smile softened for a brief moment and then he cocked his head to a side. Ken opened his mouth, his mind filled with questions, when the whistle blew. Ken just had the time to blink, that the flash of green and white rushed past him. He swirled around as quickly as he could manage, but when he faced the Odaiba's goal net, it was just to see the black-and-white soccer ball slam into it.Daisuke was in front of the net, surrounded by the Odaiba's defenders, a huge grin spread across his tan skinned cheeks. 

In less than thirty seconds Daisuke's team was already leading 1-0.The tan skinned boy ran back toward the center field, still grinning as a fool.Ken stared in stunned silence, unable to grasp completely what was happening. 

"Ehy, Ken!" Daisuke laughed as he ran past him. "Aren't you going to play, today?" 

Ken's mouth hang open and the muscles of his throat worked soundly as he tried to say something. Daisuke smirked and swirled around, facing his team-mates. 

"We can do it, guys!! Let's win this!!!" he cried out enthusiastically, and an excited roar answered him. 

* * * * * 

Chibimon carefully climbed up the bleachers, his tongue slightly protruding from the side of his mouth. His ruby eyes were narrowed in the effort to climb up, and his ears twitched every now and then. He had a intense look on his chubby face, but in the complex he looked more funny than serious. He squinted his eyes as he reached his target, and popped down on his stomach, panting hardly. His tongue was completely off his mouth, wide opened to let air in. 

After gathering enough air in, the ball of digital fur looked up, tilting his head to a side. "Hi!" he cheered, waving a little hand. 

Wormmon's antennas twitched, and he shifted his gaze from his Ken-chan to the blue ball not too far at his right. 

"CHIBIMON!!!" he squeaked, completely forgetting he was supposed to be a stuffed toy and rushing toward the still panting digimon. The caterpillar tackled the smaller creature, placing his pods round the blue ball. Unfortunately, Chibimon was still sort of tired, so he fell backward bonelesslly, and they both would have fallen to the ground if a hand hadn't sneaked down toward them to grab them both. 

"Chibimon?" big sapphire eyes blinked down at the two digimon. 

"Hi, Matt!" the little ball replied, smiling happily and twitching his ears, his eyes curved into to tiny lines. 

"Chibimon?" a voice echoed behind the blonde, and soon a younger face, where similar sparkling blue eyes shone, peeped down at the digimon from behind Matt's shoulder. 

"Hi, TK!" Chibimon giggled, finally settled down on the ground. Well, it was Yamato's lap to be more accurate… 

Soon all the digidestined gathered around him, confusing him with thousands of questions he didn't know if he could answer, but that surely couldn't answer all simultaneously. He squinted his eyes closed and raised his shoulders, his ears plastered to his skull and his little hands pressed over his mouth. They were scaring him, yelling at him like that, but they didn't even notice his shaking as they kept on asking. 

Then, suddenly, he was safe. 

He was pulled away from the confusing vortex of questions and shouts of the chosen children, and someone was holding him safe in their arms. Chibimon's eyes snapped open and he blinked quickly his round eyes, as he realized he was being hold by Wormmon, who was glaring at the digidestined and pleading them to leave his friend alone. The smaller digimon smiled, letting himself get wrapped in the warmness and listening to the now quieter and slower questions addressed to him. 

"What happened? Why are you here, Chibimon?" Iori asked, patting his own digimon on the head. 

"The Kaiser sent us back home!" Chibimon replied, not moving from Worrmon's embrace. 

"How?" Chibimon tilted his head to a side, his lids drifting down for a long blink, followed by two quicker ones. 

"With his digivice!" 

"The Kaiser have a digivice?" Chibimon tilted his head to the other side, so that he could look at Taichi. 

"Hm-hm." He nodded. "I saw it!" 

"And he used it to send Daisuke back?" Chibimon nodded again, his gaze shifting from Tai to rest on Koushiro. "Strange, indeed…" he paused, his eyebrows knitting together.

"Did he free Daisuke?!" Miyako cried, managing to tear her eyes off Daisuke for a moment, and Chibimon looked at her quizzically. 

"…free?" he blinked. "D'suke wasn't hold captive…the Kaiser's castle is our home now!" 

Miyako shook her head. "No, Chibimon…I mean…the Kaiser will let him stay here? With us? Did he gave up on Dai?" 

Chibimon blinked quickly, nuzzling closer to the green caterpillar. "…no…" 

"Why he send you two here, then?" 

Chibimon shook his head, glancing up at Yamato for a moment. "…dunno…" he looked away, guilty. 

No one told him that lie would be so painful… 

Chibimon chewed gently his lip and rested his head against Wormmon, his eyes closing softly. "But it's for Dai-chan…" 

* * * * * 

For Ken, the soccer game was actually similar to fighting, letting his instinct take control, losing completely the capacity to think clearly. It felt like being back to the old days in the digital world, when he was the Kaiser and Daisuke was his 'worthy adversary'. That game felt like the first one they played against each other, except this time he felt fits of happiness instead of rage. That was…a battle, a some sort of competition…that forced the two of them to battle both *against* and *with* the other. It was exciting, a spiralling sensation that rose from deep within them, causing jolts of electricity to run through every fibres of their bodies. 

Daisuke was laughing hard, his dark skin shining wet with sweat, and Ken himself couldn't prevent his own lips to twitch in a maniacal grin. Every capacity of thinking left behind and every need but the one to win long forgotten, the two boys were battling in the middle of the soccer field. 

It was a dance, what they were performing. Moving at the rhythm of that eclectic dance, that instinctual fight, their bodies touched, brushed against each other, sang a duet no one but them could ear. 

It was a song of mute calls, the one their bodies were performing. A song of moans, pants…of breaths and swallows, of whistles and silences. 

Their was a battle of gazes, of touches. A sanctuary for stealth peers and brushed hands. For whispered words and mute promises. It was hard and rough, eclectic and swift, and it didn't admit any pause, any distraction. 

It was something no one of them could understand, yet it was something extremely pleasurable. Something that was bringing them up to a sweet forgetfulness, where nothing existed but them. 

Stunned, practically non-existent for the two duellists, the other players stood, mouths hang open in mute shock and eyes wide in awe and amaze. They couldn't move, for the game had ceased to be a simple game the same moment two pair of brown chocolate and sparkling purple eyes met. It had changed into something superior, more refined, something they hadn't the rights to participate to. All they could do was stare as the two boys kept on fighting, dancing, singing and meeting in the misted air of the cold winter. 

The rhythm of their battle slowed down a little and Daisuke started to rush down throughout the whole field, with Ken at his heels. They resembled two children now. There were no more angered duellist, skilful dancer, sweet birds singing, or lover teasing each other. The overwhelming sensations that were before guiding every action of the two had now faded away, loosening their grips on their minds, and leaving a blessed exhaustion behind. They were truly back to their childhood now, playing tag in an endless green. 

Completely lost in their war game, Ken rushed forward, his lips curved in that kind of grin you'd expect to see on the Kaiser's face. Or better yet on Daisuke's. Utterly unaware of his every action, moving only following his deepest instinct, the paler skinned boy darted forward at max speed, bowing slightly, his mind focused on tackle the ball out of the tan skinned boy's possession. Daisuke suddenly stopped and jumped backward, easily dodging Ken's attack and still grinning like a fool. 

The other boy grinned up at his opponent and bent his torso backward, sliding swiftly toward him. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground, panting heavily. And Daisuke was on top of him, panting, his eyes glazed with something Ken couldn't define. Forgotten, the soccer ball rolled away from them, stopping to move in the same moment the whistle blew, signalling the end of the game. The world around them exploded in cry of happiness as all the other player rushed round the field, but the two didn't even cast them a glimpse, instead focused on each other's quick, yet short and panting breathing. 

Somehow they ended up remaining alone in the field, with the exception of the other chosen children who were now rushing downstairs through the underpass, both shocked and utterly happy. 

"…Dai…" Ken smiled, shifting inside Daisuke's arms. He had his hands over each of Ken's shoulders, his forearms on the purple haired boy's chest. Ken's own hands were at the sides of his face, palms up, and he was looking at Daisuke with half lidded eyes. Daisuke smiled back, shifting his arms so that now the other boy was trapped between them. Then, without a second thought, he softly leaned backward stealing Ken another kiss. 

It was soft and sweet, nothing more than a quick peck, but that was all Ken's already flushed cheeks needed right then to turn to a brilliant red. 

Ken blinked quickly, half frowning and half smiling, to keep back the burning moisture that was welling up into his eyes. 

"…Dai…" he whispered huskily, slowly enclosing Daisuke's neck in a loose hug. 

The tan skinned boy shifted, the same red tone which was on Ken's cheeks quickly creeping over his. He leaned slowly toward Ken, his lids drifting down. 

"Daisuke!!!!!!!" 

Daisuke slowly looked up, and gently freed himself from Ken's tentavive hug as he stood up to his knees. Miyako. Miyako was running toward him. Ken propped up to his forearms, eyes not quiet meeting Daisuke's, and slowly turned toward the lavender-haired girl who was rushing desperately toward them. Ken's usually clear eyes darkened for a brief moment, shadowed by something that a fool could mistake for jealousy, but which+ Ken knew perfectly well to be… 

To be… 

To be… 

Jealousy. 

Pure and strong jealousy. 

Unclaimed, unbidden and unrighteous, but nevertheless it was there. 

Burning and boiling it was there. 

So you could easily imagine how loud that jealousy-not-jealousy screamed and how hard it twisted Ken's heart when Miyako tackled Daisuke with a hug. And when, giving a whoop of joy, Miyako send both of them to fall on a heap, disengaging Daisuke's legs from around Ken's body. The sudden lack of contact was maddening and Ken hardly suppressed a little growl, turning away not to see Daisuke slowly stood up to a sitting position, stroking the back of Miyako, who was now crying freely on his shirt. 

"Hush…" he whispered quietly, giggling softly. "There's no need to cry!" 

Miyako just shook her head silently, gripping to Daisuke's shirt as if her life depended on it. Ken looked away, trying to deal with that feeling that couldn't be jealousy but resembled it so much. Glad to have a distraction, he rolled away from the two and stood on his feet, greeting with a smile the remained didigidestined as they approached them. 

"Dai's back!" he said, with nothing but joy sparkling in his eyes. 

It was then that Daisuke tensed up and that Miyako, consequently, looked up at him giving out a small cry. 

Ken looked around, only to see Daisuke focused guilty on the grass below. 

"you're here…to *stay*, right?" Ken asked, his voice both pleading and desperately demanding. 

"I'm…" Daisuke licked his lips, looking down at Miyako. She sniffled, but didn't turn away. "Miyako…" he said softly, ever so softly that Ken's heart ached. "do you love me?" 

The girl tensed, suddenly looking away. "Miyako…" he pleaded, turning her head so that she was facing him once more. "Please. I need to know." 

Ken closed his eyes painfully as Miyako gave a little nod and embraced Daisuke tightly, not able to say anything else. 

However, when the tan skinned boy hugged her back, it was only for a brief moment. Then, he softly pulled away, looking around at his friends. 

"You were worried…for *me*?" 

Hesitant nods answered his hope-filled voice and he nodded back, his eyes sliding over his friends' concerned faces. He surveyed them all, a rush of warmth coursing through him. They all looked so concerned for him, so genuine happy, although he could tell that they were battling some inane guilt deep inside. 

He smiled at the sight, brown eyes dancing and sparkling. 

"Thank you. All of you. Thank you." He lowered his gaze to smile at the girl still gripping his shirt and then he gently pulled away, raising to his feet. "He truly did it…" he murmured, tears shimmering in his eyes. "He gave me all I wanted." He looked up at his friend, with a sorry smile tugging his lips. "He gave me someone who love me and care for me." Suddenly he looked down, focusing on the soft blades of grass dancing at his feet. "He really did it."He whispered, his rich brown eyes glistening. He swiped at them furtively with the heel of his hand, refusing to acknowledge the burning moisture tingling his eyes. 

A flash of pain streaked by the young man's countenance as he opened his mouth. "…I…" There was a slight pause. During which he mouthed something silently, not ready to say anything aloud. Then, when he looked up and spoke, his voice sounded strangely sad.

"I'm happy." He beamed and then closed his eyes, painfully, as the mist engulfed him in a glacial embrace. 

Ken was looking at him quizzically and was on the verge of replying when he became aware of a sound coming from behind Daisuke. As a reply to Daisuke's earlier words, a blinding light had appeared behind the tan skinned boy who slowly shifted, casting a glance at whatever –or whoever– was behind him, and then looked forward again, the shadow of a smile on his lips. 

"What the hell??" Tai mumbled as he took a step forward. 

The now greenish mist behind him began to bubble and shimmer as the humming that usually issued from a digievolution escaped the now fading light, escalating into something that resembled a pain-filled scream. 

The scream stopped as the light disappeared and the form which had materialized within the fog took a step forward. 

It was a form Ken hadn't seen for two long and yet too short weeks... 

"Are you ready child?" The Kaiser's digimon questioned as he stepped closer to Daisuke. 

The tan skinned boy nodded mutely as he languidly turned around. The huge digimon kneel down to allow him to climb up on his back, and the spread his white wings, opalescent in the residue light of his apparition, turning slowly toward the humans and digimon who were looking angrily at him. 

Ken licked his lips. 

Daisuke's eyes held no longer the fire which used to blind and fascinate him. His usually open and bright face was now devoid of expression. And it was with a blank stare that he smiled at them, making him shiver. 

"He'll let you go if you won't follow me. He'll let the game stop here. He had already got his prize." 

"What…" Miyako murmured, silent tears streaming down her face, now twisted in shock and pain. "what prize?" 

"He made me happy." Daisuke smiled. "And this will make him happy." 

"What?!" Ken shouted, taking a step forward. Daisuke turned toward him, his eyes flashing with their usual vitality for a brief moment. 

"He gave me what I wanted. Now, he'll have what he wants." He pointed his chest mutely, before pat gently the huge digimon on his neck. 

The gigantic creature nodded back and, casting a last glimpse at the ones in front of him, he turned around and jumped in the air. 

"Daisuke!!" Ken yelled, running after the fading image of the huge digimon, eaten away by the bright light of the sun. He fell on his knees then, when there was no sign of Daisuke around. 

"…he wanted to make Dai happy…I was right…" Kari whispered. 

Eyes wide and shimmering with tears and mouth hanging open in mute shock, Ken slowly turned around to see the child of light clasp her hands against her mouth as if she was sick. Her knees gave up on her and she fell silently in the arms of a over-worried Takeru, who glanced worriedly up at Ken. 

"A game?! A prize?!" Miyako wept, doing her best to battle her tears. "This…this was all a game for the Kaiser? We were all toys for him?!" 

Ken swallowed, suddenly remembering how the Kaiser had always talked about all this as a game. 

And how he had claimed them all as his new toys. 

For a moment, a wave of nausea run up his throat, just the memory of being once one with the monster enough to made him sick. "we were toys…" 

"Yes we were." Koushirou's voice made his heart skip a beat. "We were just pawns in his hands." Big purple eyes danced up to lock in a pair of cinnamon ones and there stopped, unable to move away. "but…" he said as he looked around. "…I know the rules of this game." He proclaimed, attiring disbelieving states upon him. 

"He played with Daisuke and Ken's life." He said. "…and used all of us as figureheads on his play, moving us on his chessboard as he pleased." He narrowed his eyes then, seeing how the others weren't grasping what had been done to them. 

"Can't you see it?" he spat, spreading his arms around. "first he gave Daisuke's goggles to Ken, the goggles of the *leader*. Then he left him to hang down the same cliff were he had already chained Daisuke, the previous bearer of the goggless.And now this!" he yelled, balling his fists. "..he staged Daisuke's life using Ken as the main character!!" 

The red-headed boy stopped, taking deep breaths in to calm down, as he heard everyone gasp. "And now…" he paused, taking his time to survey all the digidestined. "…it's time to play the final act." He nodded to Ken, who nodded back mutely. "…Kimeramon's apparition and the Kaiser's final defeat." 

========================================= 

To be continued in part 06: Truth 

**::pants:: wow, I did it ^_^ I started typing this chapter when I was a little feverish some days ago and never had the *force* to revise or end it…anyway, we're *really* near the end. I don't think I'll manage to end everything in the next chapter, but I'm not sure…however, this will be at max 7-chapter long… **

** **

**Daisuke = If her fingers won't start typing whatever they want, without follow what he brain tell them ::nods:: **

** **

**Ken = and that's what usually happen… **

** **

**Nemesi-chan = ::sweatdrop:: what can I do if I get carried away?! That just means I like this fic!! ::coughs:: I hope ya all are having fun reading it just as I'm having fun writing it… **

**See ya in the next chapter!!!! **

** **

**Ja-ne minna! **

** **


	6. Shattered Mirror - part 6 - Truth

A

**A/N: Okay… according to my cousin who-everything-knows, Yasashii means kind/gentle and Hotaru means firefly. And I *know* Tenshi means Angel. So, basically, the name Yasashiino Tenshi means Angel of Kindness, or so I hope ^^;; And then, Tzarina is the Russian for 'Queen' and Zarevitch is the Zar's son and designed successor ^^ **

** **

**Disclaimers = Nothing here but the plot itself, the Creators, the Tzarina, Tenshi, Raymon and all his forms is mine. The characters you'll see in this fic belong to their rightful owners. I'm just borrowing them. **

** **

**Rating = PG-13 due to the mentioning of mild-violence, torture, pain and death. **

** **

**Warnings = …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………… Kaiser-chan ;_; *sobs* **

_Shattered mirror _ _Part 06 – Truth_

Daisuke walked down the gloom corridor slowly, moving through a long series of twisting, never-ending hallways leisurely, with a seemingly calculated cat-like grace. The fairly too high ceiling and the cold walls were fused and drowned in the gloominess, overlapping and melding, so that he was moving cloaked in perfect darkness. So wrapped up in his own thoughts, he was only dimly aware of the figure following him as silently and faithfully as it could.

Was it Chibimon? Or was it Veemon? Or the Kaiser's digimon, maybe?

Daisuke didn't know and didn't want to either. At that point such details had lost all their intrinsic meaning –if they ever had any- in the light of what had happened and was about to.

He moved through the shadows as one of them, knowing the depths of this castle and its every corner and shadow too well to really need to watch where he was going. He couldn't pay attention to nothing but his final destination; his heart settled on fire by some unknown feeling that he couldn't understand logically. Later he'd think that he was so nervous because he knew what was about to happen, but if that's the truth it's a question I'll leave you to ask and answer.

His stroll coming to a silent halt in front of a huge door chiseled exquisitely, Daisuke placed his palms on the wooden surface, the geometries and patterns chiseled all over it tickling his palms and marking his soft flesh. Cracking the door open, he limped inside the dimly lit bedroom with a firm step, the digimon following him quietly. Taking a moment to inspect his surrounding, his russet eyes -now nearly black for the immensity of the pupils- fell, hypnotized, on the ray of pale light leaching through the half closed window and caressing softly the deep mauve/black silky sheets on the huge bed. Billionths of little dancers floated in the golden radiance, iridescent particles of dust carried around by a soft, imperceptible breeze.

Smiling softly, as a old man who has just see the sweetest child accomplishing one of those gestures of deep love and clear inexpertness they only can perform, the brunette moved toward the bed even slower than before, seeming happy and at peace. Once he reached the bed he knelt down, eyes never leaving the dark sheets. Making himself comfortable on his knees, Daisuke caught the digimon staring at him with this sorrowful look breaking its otherwise strict countenance at the corner of his eyes. Big ruby eyes narrowed and their owner leaned its back against the cold rock wall as Daisuke ran an exploring hand over the silkiness of the bed. Once satisfied by its little quest, the hand came to a rest and was soon joined by its sister and by the soft pressure of Daisuke's head resting over its back.

Still smiling, Daisuke allowed his auburn eyes to close out the world and, sighing softly, he began his silent waiting, a content statement playing over his features. It wouldn't take the Kaiser too much to awake. He just had to wait. Wait and wait… until it was time.

* * * * *

Koushiro Izumi was known for the swiftness his fingers could hit the keys of his laptop with, but never before he had reached such an extreme speed. Driven nervous by the looming danger the second child of Courage and Friendship was in right now, he was typing frantically, quivering droplets of sweat tracing down his temples from time to time. At his side, reading over his shoulder and drinking eagerly every single word, was Ken, doing his best to restrain his own worry and be helpful. That was something the redhead was really grateful for, and every now and then he would look up and smile reassuringly at the amethyst eyed boy who was squeezing his shoulder as if that contact was his only link with sanity.

Sitting in a corner, legs drawn to her chest and arms wrapped around them, was Miyako. Her head was ducked down, her hair cascading down her shoulders and laying on her neck, arms and legs as brushes of violet. Her face was hidden between her knees, but by the way her shoulders heaved with every jagged breath she took, and by the soft sobbing coming from her direction, it was quite easy to guess she was still crying. The bearer of the crest of Love and the bearer of the crest of Light were at her sides, gently patting her back and sharing helpless looks. Not so far, sat the second child of Reliability and Knowledge, big emerald eyes hooked on the shivering form. Next to him, with his back against the wall, his head tipped skyward was the brunette child of Courage and, slumped in chair at his side, was the blue-haired child of Reliability. Both had their eyes closed, one in evident worry and the other to hide this worry of his behind a cold façade.

"KUSO!"

Every pair of eyes in the room but Miyako's shot up to alight on the sight of a very pissed ex-leader of the chose children with a fist enveloped in his other cupped hand, an angry grimace twisting his fine features. "HOW MUCH WILL THIS TAKE, UH?!"

"I'm… not sure, Tai." Koushiro replied slowly, his eyes falling back on his computer screen. "I've been working on this program for days… I'm nearly done but…" he left the sentence hanging, in hope he would catch the hint.

"KUSO!" he screeched louder, coffee brown eyes narrowing. "I've had to do it your way and wait!! And what's the result?! MORE WAITING!!!"

Miyako's head snapped up at this and she noticed Taichi's usually tan face had paled visibly, and she could also see the clear worry rippling the boy's eyes.

"Daisuke…" she began, but her voice faltered and she stopped turning to gaze mutely at the ground. "…you… … …wanted to… … …go save him?"

"Hell, yeah!" the brunette replied harshly, and the other children winced, expecting the rude tone of his voice to cause Miyako to start crying again. Anyway, relieved sighs excited those chose children's lips as she just shook her head.

"I though… I was the only one… who cared enough…"

"Me too." Taichi admitted with a nod, a small smile tugging up his lips. "I wanted so bad to just burst into the Kaiser's base and beat him till he would beg, but I couldn't…" his smile dropped and so did his eyes, aligning at last on his hands, hanging loosely at his sides. "…because we needed a plan…"

He paused for a moment and then looked up, clenched fists coming closer to a grinning face. "But now we're going to give him a lesson for taking away our Dai, right?!" His companion exploded into a loud cheer without a second thought and, despite herself, Miyako let out a little giggle, wiping her tears away with her sleeve. Then she locked eyes with Taichi and smiled, nodding him she had understood. With her hand still laying on the soft curve of the slight older girl's back, Hikari smiled softly, before her eyes clouded. She let out a sight, lowering her head to face the floor.

"What happened to us?" she whispered soulfully, breaking suddenly the brief moment of happiness. "We drifted apart… left him alone… never considering him before…and now… we could lose him…"

"Hush…" a soft finger was placed on her lips, and Hikari immediately straightened her shoulders, looking up in a pair of gentle hazel eyes. "…we'll tell him how sorry we're and how much we love him as soon as we'll have him back… does this sound good?" Sora whispered soulfully.

Mutely, the brunette nodded, a smile spreading over her cheeks.

The relative silence was broken when Yamato punched the wall angrily, gritting his teeth so hard it seemed he was about to break them. "And do you think I was happy to just sit down waiting for the right time to take action, uh?! If he has touched a single hair of his brown head…"

"He's one of us…" Joe sighed and, taking off his glasses, massaged the bridge of his nose. "I was so worried I could barely sleep at night… me and Izzy came out with centuries of possible plans to repair the damaged files and discover the truth about the Kais--"

"Files?!" Ken whipped around abruptly, nearly throwing Koushiro on the ground because of the grip he still had of his shoulder. The bluette grimaced, and rubbed his face harshly with both of his hands. "*What* truth?!" Ken almost shouted, purple eyes darting around to land on four shocked expressions he could just guess to be mirrors of his own.

"The truth about the Kaiser." Koushiro amended slowly. "Is all here in my laptop."

"Basically." Yamato spoke next, his ocean eyes burning the wall. "We have the file, but we can't access it."

"B-But…"

"Yeah, Ken." Taichi crossed his arms across his chest and nodded firmly, nibbling angrily his bottom lip. "We couldn't risk making our move without consulting this file. Not after last time."

"We don't know who he is…" Sora said softly, eyes not quite meeting Ken. "If he's a human, or a digimon… or an entity completely different, like Gennai… and…" she paused for a moment, reaching out for a lock of russet. "…we don't know if he's an evil tyrant or a blameless victim."

Ken winced at the last comment, ashamed by his own blind rage that had veiled to him the possibility that the Kaiser himself was only a confused boy entangled in something bigger than him. A similar realization made fresh tears well up in Miyako's golden brown eyes. Not only she was fighting with blind anger someone that wasn't proved to be an enemy, but she had accused without a reason her companions to care not for Daisuke, too. Wiping the tears away bravely she stood up, walking up to Koushiro's side. "What are you working on right now?"

The redhead raised a finger toward the screen, pointing a blinking dot running happily through the screen. "That's the file Gennai sent me to upload me about the Kaiser's plan and true identity. But it is coded, and it has been damaged because halfway through the transmission someone I suppose to be the Kaiser intercepted my connection and disturbed it." Miyako nodded slowly, one finger moving up to slide her glasses up her nose. "I'm nearly done repairing and converting it. The only thing we can to do is wait."

Again the violet haired girl nodded, but this time she moved her hands toward the keyboard. "What if we do this…?"

Koushirou's obsidian eyes widened considerably and he nearly fell backward for the surprise. "GOOD! We're devoting everything to file decoding and repairs... It will still take some time, but this will reduce it considerably!! How come I didn't think about *that*?! It's *so* obvious!!"

Flashing him her best grin, Miyako posed for her friend her trademark 'bingo' pose and was pleased to see him grin back at her proudly.

This induced Ken to take his time to look at the girl closely. She was smart –as she had just proved; full of life, stubborn and sweet all at once. She had a big heart and was ready to help her friends… or pester them to death if it could be of any use. She was kind and obviously attached to Daisuke. And, just to add her points, she was very, very pretty. Coming from someone who, like Ken, never cared enough about girls to take note of their aspect, that was a big compliment; big enough to multiply the jealousy-not-jealousy still lurking at the bottom of his stomach. He forced one of the corners of his lips to curve up in a small smile when she beamed at him contently, eyes glassy and cheeks flushed. She was pretty. No doubt Daisuke was happy she loved him. Possibly, he even reciprocated her feelings. And if he didn't he was surely about to.

Sighing heavily, Ken's attention diverted from Miyako's soft eyes to one of his hands.

//I've lost.// He thought, and after a moment his head snapped upward. Shocked by how he couldn't understand this stranger thought flowed into his mind and how resigned it had sounded, he looked at his hands once again. What had he lost? And shouldn't he fight to have it back? But fight for what?! What in the digiworld was wrong with him?! Closing his eyes, the purple haired boy shifted his weight on his heels, tipping his head backward. It wouldn't take Koushiro's program much to repair the damaged files. He just had to wait. Wait and wait… until it was time.

* * * * *

His lids fluttered upward, and he regarded the unlit room with usual sparkling eyes refined by the sleep. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, as his dark eyes looked into the twin pools of crimson pleading up at him, waving with confused emotion. He blinked leisurely, relishing in the almost unreal perfection of that single moment. Then…

"Daisuke?"

Daisuke smiled softly, closing is eyes and nuzzling his cheek against the silky sheets his head and hands were tangled in. "Yes…?"

The Kaiser pressed his forehead against the mattress, allowing a faint smile to tug upward the corners of his lips. "You're back…"

"Of course!" The other replied, placing his chin on his twined fingers.

"…welcome…" the Kaiser whispered, still swaying in a dazed sleepiness, looking with half lidded eyes at the same ray of light that had fascinated Daisuke so much when he had first entered the bedroom. The smile on his lips had a short life, though, and when reality flowed over him it was replaced by an impudent smirk. "Worried about the centuries of things I could do to your friends if you didn't come back, right?"

At first Daisuke didn't say anything, just staring at the blurred spot of dark wine which were the sheets, too close to his eyes to be on focus. Only when he noticed the Kaiser's hand clench desperately to the dark silkiness, he finally spoke.

"No." he said slowly, letting the word roll down his tongue and slide out his lips in a shooting whisper. "I'm back… because I promised."

Another pause followed, during which the Kaiser's fingers wriggled, looking like he was rasping invisible mud. "…you're here… for me, then?"

Daisuke swallowed, disentangling his hands from the sheets to lay his elbows on the mattress, and rest his chin in his cupped hands. "…I think… I am."

The Kaiser licked his lips, eyes cast downward. "…why?"

"I promised."

"No…" he shook his head slowly, brows furrowed and lips pressed in a line, as if that simple gesture needed to be pondered carefully. "…I mean…" he shook his head again, eyes filling with billionths of dark shadows. "…you promised because I forced you to, right? So what's the point in proclaiming you're back for me, uh? I suppose you can stop your little game of charades, for I'm not as gullible as you seem to regard me as."His voice was cold and even; the low hiss of a venomous snake. His eyes narrowed for a moment, and in that same moment everything went still. Him, his beloved, the digimon watching silently the whole exchange, the air… the world. Then, the doors of his connection with Daisuke banged open and torrents of secreted emotions flowed though, filing the Kaiser with awe. His eyes widened, as the most intense emotions of all those hit him full force. Compassion. Pity. Sympathy. Friendship. And… and… consideration? …Lo…lo…ve…?

When the implied immensity of what was happening hit him with all the force of a slap, wedging itself deep into his being, he actually reeled backward, jolting up to a kneeling position, as if hit by a physical bow… as if hurt… as if mortally wounded.

An eerie feeling of deja-vu threatened to overwhelm him. All of a sudden, he was submerged again in the sticky hug of too familiar pity, lost in a plethora of disembodied skeletal hands reaching out to him… Pity… the feeling he hated to receive and yet elicited the most, was back to haunt him.

Pity. Pity. Pity.

//I'm not pitiful! I'm the might Emperor!!//

Pity. Pity. Pity.

//I'm… I'm…//

Pity. Pity. Pity.

//NO!!!//

Pity. Pity. Pity.

//…no…//

Pity. Pity. Pity.

//…onegai…//

Pitiful.

//Onegai…//

His breath came out in ragged gusts, and Daisuke himself widened his eyes, adding immense concern to the centuries of feelings already flowing from his heart to the Kaiser's. Suddenly, the boy stopped, as if petrified. Then, his head snapped downward, like the one of a broken doll. His trembling hands moved toward his face, where wide eyes shone, gibbering, the pupils so tin to be nearly invisible, drowned in a dark sea of sheer insanity. A low, strangled chuckle trusted out his lips, and then it shifted, boiling up to a sickening crescendo, and soon the Kaiser's whole form was shook by insane laughter, which resounded in the darkness in a maddening echo… a fly of crows hunting for mortal souls.

* * * * *

Ken jolt up from the comfort the old chair was giving him when he heard Miyako's frustrated shriek. Or at least, that's how it looked like. In reality, the distant sound of a sickening sneer what was had alerted him, and his mind would realize only with a significant delay the predicament the child of Love and Sincerity was in. Keen eyes quickly scanned the dim area, looking for any sign of whatever had been laughing so disturbingly and sounding so close to give him the impression of warm breath moistening the back of his neck. Reaching out his hand for the cradle of the long-dead dark seed, he ran his eyes back over his environments again, and this time something caught his eyes. Miyako was screeching loudly, banging her fists on the table where Koushiro's laptop laid, still beeping indifferently. He narrowed his eyes at the unusual sight, brown kneading in thought.

"Wh--"

He was pulled forward roughly and forced to swallow the rest of his sentence when the girl turned toward him and grasped the collar of his shirt in two tight fists. "Why is it taking all this =damned= time, uh?!"

"W-w-what?" He blinked, taken aback, before being throttled by the overwrought girl.

"You're the genius of the group, right?! So do something!!"

"But Miya--"

"Don't 'but Miyako' me!! Do something! Anything!!" A tear streaked down her face and he looked at it in fascinated horror. "Don't you care for Daisuke? You've been sitting here for God knows how much, doing nothing but staring at empty air!!!"

The purple haired boy lowered his eyes shamefully, not able to bear the silent accusation which burned in the girl's hazel eyes.

"I do… I care, but… what can I possibly do other that try to be out of the way and let the program do its work?"

The girl shook her head, lowering her gaze as well. "You're right… I guess I'm just… overreacting. Sorry."

"No…" he smiled softly, placing his hands on each of her shoulders. "I supposed I'd react exactly like that if I was in love with Daisuke…"

Miyako's eyes widened and so did Ken's when they both grasped the faint innuendo lurking deeply in that sentence. The girl gulped soundly, looking straight into Ken's wide eyes.

"You don't, then? You don't love him?"

It would have been so easy for the former Emperor to take the way out she had so skillfully settled in front of his eyes. He just had to say a simple 'no' and everything would be fine. He would be back to his usual, *straight* world, and she would be satisfied and relieved all at once. But if saying it was so simple and so right, then why that little word refused to escape his mouth? What was the thing that was holding it back, and that was invisible even to Ken himself?

Battling this inner confusion, he dropped his hands and shook his head slowly, hoping the girl could accept that as an answer. Unfortunately, she didn't. She wanted answers, and she wanted them *now*.

"This means you two are not in love? That Daisuke didn't trap himself in the digital world out of love? Love for you?" Ken's eyes widened even more if that was possible. The kisses… his sacrifice… his clear turmoil… his pain… was that… love?! Was Takeru right, then? Daisuke need him like *that*?! And was the Kaiser right, too? Did his best friend love him? And he *did* want him as much as the Kaiser did? Ken opened his mouth, but words failed him and he could just look, bewildered, as Miyako kept on asking feverishly, her voice hitting notes higher and higher with each word. "The Kaiser was wrong when he insinuated that you want him, right? And he was just lying when he said he loves you, right?! Right?! But when he said you don't love him, he was sincere! He was, wasn't he?!" she screamed, the shaking in her arms increasing. "Right?! There's no possible way that he loves you!! It… can't be!! Why… why would he fall for a boy? Am I not enough for him?"

Ken could only stare at her, mind miles away. "OR AM I?!" She shrieked, shacking him by his shoulders.

"CALM DOWN!" Pale hands had grasped both her wrists in a tight hold, and the girl stumbled a step backward, looking at Ken doing the same. Then she blinked, looking up into hungry obsidian eyes. "What has gotten into you two, uh? Stop fighting! We're a team! We need to cooperate! Daisuke's safety is more important that this foolish cat fights!!" Joe shouted, before lowering carefully his tone to a soothing whisper. "You'll take care of this later, is this fair enough?"

Mutely, Miyako nodded, shooting Ken an apologetic glance. Before either of them could say anything, though, Kouishiro erupted in an excited cry.

"PROCESS COMPLETE! WE CAN ACCESS THE FILE NOW!!!"

* * * * *

The laughter clawed its way up the boy's throat, boiling and burning in his mouth to echo back at him from the walls, like if the unmoving rock couldn't bear such a disgusting caress as the one that voice was performing sickly over it. Then, the laughter quieted, as the eruption of Volcano coming to a hesitant halt that still holds the power and fury of the first bursting, but keeps it hidden under a layer of quickly hardening rock. Soon the only noise in the room was the one of the Kaiser's ragged breaths.

"…Kaiser…?" Daisuke asked timidly.

The Kaiser stiffened visibly, his whole body seeming to go erect. When he opened his lilac lips to speak, his voice was clear and steady.

"Daisuke."

"What…was…that?" He managed in a gasp, dazed by the battling emotions streaming through his whole body for the contact with the Kaiser's heart.

"Me."

"…no kidding."

Despite his great exhaustion, the Kaiser chuckled, but the sound escaping his lips was far from his usual evil and derisive gurgle. "That's the truth. That's what I've in my heart, and being what you've deep inside what defines you then, necessarily, what you felt was me."

An amazed gasp escaped Daisuke's lips and he stood, completely still, marveling about the depths of the Kaiser's heart. Despite that sheer darkness that dominated them, the insane fears, the overwhelming needs unknown even to the Kaiser itself, they were comforting in a way. Embracing that darkness was like coming back home for Daisuke.

"…why?" the brunette finally asked.

"Why what?"

"Why did you do it?" he frowned at the memories now playing untarnished and clear in his mind.

"And you?" the Kaiser asked, lowering his head at last. His eyes fell on Daisuke's wrists and there they remained. "Why did you cut your wrists? Did you do it because you wanted to die, or rather because you wanted to live?"

"To live?"

"There are many ways to live, my Daisuke. So much that one human mind can barely consider them all. And their number overwhelms the one of the ways to die." He paused, dropping his hands at his sides and leaning back against the bed. "And I did what I did to live."

"Tell me." Daisuke asked softly, and yet his voice held an unmistakable hint of demand.

"Look deep inside myself, Daisuke. Deep down the story of this world, at the dawn of time. And there you'll find me, my beloved. The real me."

"Tell me." Was all he said.

"I've been her since the start. I've seen cities burn in miasmas of flickers that reflected in the sky and the streaming waters… I've seen death and life battle over a simple valley. I've kissed Death on the lips and she has pulled away. I've the memory of the pits of hell burned in my mind with liquid fire." Once again the boy paused, and Daisuke shifted, crossing his arms on the soft mattress and laying his head over them, asking mutely his captor to go on. As if promising him he could take as long as he wanted because he would never get tired. Never grow impatient. As if he could, by showing mutely this endless confidence of his, made the prospective of a painful remembrance a bittersweet new memory to share.

"It all started… when I was still nothing but a child…"

* * * * *

"Look at this." Izzy began slowly, tapping a key on they keyboard. A buzzing sound flickered in the now thick air, dense with worry and unspoken questions, and a faint ray of light erupted from the screen, iridescent little dots dancing quietly around it. Then, the center of the column of light flickered and waved, and a three-dimensional hologram of an eleven years old Digimon Kaiser made its proud appearance in front of the digidestined.

"…This is… me… right?" Ken asked just as slowly, if not even slower, his throat gone dry.

"No." Izzy stated quietly. "This is the *real* Kaiser. The one that came to life along with the whole digital universe."

"C-c-come again?" Stuttered Miyako, while Ken now wide stare scanned deeply the wavering image.

"Let me explain." He pressed another key and the image shifted, to a spiky haired boy, -6 or 7- hugging protectively a blue bundle, a little lizard digimon. His amethyst eyes were huge and glassy… kind and lonely… betrayed but still innocent… and yet… distant, lost. The digidestined only shared a confused look, but Ken's reaction was thousand times more devastating. He shot up, straightening his shoulder after a cold shiver shook them. His huge eyes widened even more and he opened his mouth wide, inhaling air with a loud gasp. His knees didn't support him for long though, and he reeled forward, pressing his hands on the desk for support. Still gasping, looking like a shipwrecked person panting on the shore after a seemingly endless fight with the unforgiving tsunamis, he looked up to the wavering image of the child, eyes watering and voice dying in his throat.

"O…O…Osamu?" He chocked out at last, flashing the redhead at his side a sorrowful look.

"Wrong again." He shook his head slowly, attention diverted completely on the hologram. "This is the Kaiser… before being the Kaiser." He explained almost sadly. "I suppose you boys all know about the Castle in the eastern continent, right?"

"ShogunGecomon's castle you mean?" Hikari asked gently. "I think we stumbled across it once."

"…Yeah." T.K. agreed slowly. Mulling over his own words.

Once again Koushiro nodded slowly, looking like he was mulling over and calculating even such an easy movement. "At first, at the creation of the digital world I mean, that Castle was nothing but the residence of its creators. They self-proclaimed themselves Landlords of the world they had created and took residence in that Castle to prove their authority to every digimon foolish enough to contradict them."

Miyako pointed at the screen, where now the image of the Kaiser projected on the ray of light was paired with one of the above-mentioned Castle. "So this is where Dai's held, right?!"

"…no. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll go there gradually, now let me explain." He pressed a single key and the image of the castle immediately took the place of the Kaiser's in the light screen. "As I was saying, here was where the Creators lived. A whole team of scientists and geniuses of computers and robotics occupied the Castle, but two were the ones holding the power." Again Koushiro pressed a key and the glimmering image of a wonderful woman wavered quietly where once stood the looming image of the castle. This was a very beautiful woman, her fair skin seemed to glow and her shining raven hair held an undertone of velvet purple that just added magic to her already appealing figure. She was smiling, and even if the gentle emotion curving her lips didn't reflect itself in the depths of her turquoise eyes, that didn't disturb the quite waves of kindness her whole form radiated. "Tzarina Yasashiino Hotaru." He paused for a moment and then pressed another key, so that the image of the purple haired child and his lizard was beside the woman's "…and her only child, the Zarevitch Tenshi"

* * * * *

"…a wonderful woman and a lonely child tangled in the illusions and weighted down by the pressure of a role of endless powerfulness. What a fantastic scenario, isn't it? Just… the plot for a fairy tale. The idea for a legend book." The Kaiser smirked, eyes clouded with what seemed pain. "But how different life is from fables… in reality what's evil will always be evil and what's good isn't always strong enough to resist darkness."

Daisuke's finger contracted around the sheets for an unconscious reaction, trying to block out the sorrow and painful sarcasm flowing from the Kaiser's heart straight to his. Noticing his beloved's uneasiness, the Kaiser took a deep breath in, willing his emotion to be tamed. Daisuke smiled gratefully at that, a gesture that only elicited a low snicker form his captor.

"I was the first human to be born in the digital lands. Half real, half digital. A being half of human flash, half of data. I was a miracle to the eyes of some Creators, and an interesting guinea pig and delicious challenge to the eyes of others." He smiled bitterly then, loosing control of his emotion and letting them flown into Daisuke's mind to elicit another shiver. "Imagine… a child, the only one in that world of chimeras and fantasy animals, regarded as an object, used as an excuse for acts otherwise never forgivable, acclaimed as a miracle and venerated as a ruler. Alone always and everywhere, until one day, to add more glory to his legend, he was able to synchronize with a native of the digital lands –a digimon- an elicit in him the dormant capacity to digivolve."

"Raymon?"

"Raymon."

* * * * *

"Raymon?"

"Raymon" Koushiro repeated, pointing the lizard buried in the young Kaiser's arms. "The rookie form of the Mega digimon we already met. His first evolution activated the dormant data that activated the digivolutions. In fact, it seems that, until he first digivolved, digimon were trapped in the form they were created in."

"And why did he first digivolve, may I ask?" Miyako said, eyes hooked on the gentle face of the kid, marveling on what could have occurred to him to change someone so naïve-looking into an heartless tyrant.

"Actually, that's the best question you could have asked Miyako." Koushiro said, shifting in his seat, while every other Digidestined bowed closer to his laptop. "It seems that a fair amount of fights was born between the Creators and the figure of the Tzarina. And the differences kept growing day after day, until…"

* * * * *

"…they challenged her, my beloved. The wonderful woman whose unrepealable rights had made her drift apart from her reality to elevate her in a world of power and responsibilities where not even her own son was allowed. They challenged her. And she fought for, as she said, I was hers and hers alone. They had no rights over me. And so they killed her, and the wonderful woman was transformed into a broken doll drowned in a torrent of crimson blood. It spotted my cheeks, confusing with something I've been told is called 'tears'. She smiled, then died, her bloody corpse falling on top of me to enclose me in that hug I've waited for all my lifetime. And then…"

Daisuke lowered his head in the sheets, warm wetness streaming down his cheeks to die in the wine silkiness. It was too much… just too much… the memories playing in front of his eyes… the shouts echoing in his ears… the feeling of blood covering his hands and features… her last, only true smile… the tortures they inflicted on her before letting her exhale her last breath… and then…

* * * * *

"And then…" Koushiro said slowly, his eyes widening at the images and words appearing on his screen. "…they… took him."

* * * * *

"…they took me. And since then my world was nothing but pain. And who had always considered me nothing but a rare and interesting guinea pig had his dream come true. Many types of probes where injected in my body and the experiments started. And so did the pain." Daisuke buried his head deeper in the sheets, shaking it desperately, but the Kaiser raised his head, eyes closed and breath even. "But no experiment went as they expected. The power drawn out of me, regardless of what they did to me, escaped their comprehension and hold, and this just enraged them more. And the pain grew."

"I tried to fight, but it was all in vain. And one single word seemed capable to escape my trembling lips. 'Onegai'." He closed his eyes, biting his bottom lip. "Onegai… onegai… onegai…" He paused again and then Daisuke nodded slowly, allowing him the now so needed permission to go on, open his heart and let him in. "But I couldn't endure the pain much longer… at first the pain elicited fear… then tears… and then… I was dominated by hatred. Burning hatred that rushed inside my veins and boiled at the bottom of my stomach until, unsurprisingly, it turned into destructive impulse to destroy. Destroy everything. The Creators, the earth, the digitalworld..." Once again he paused, smiling sadly at Daisuke's tiny attempts to put up a façade of braveness that fooled their link not even for a second. "Finally they noticed my violent behavior, so unusual for a child of my age, but it was already too late. I was completely different from the child who loved tales of angels and fairies and despised violence and weapons that they had captured. My body was broken ...and my mind was too."

"I freed my power, twining it with Raymon's to digivolve him to the supreme form of Imperialmon, the mega digimon. Countless creatures died before my eyes. Men, women, 'mon and 'womon, innocent bystanders and guilty tormentors… A variety of emotions -suffering, grief, fear- wedged inside my earth… and I smiled, my Daisuke. My eyes dead, my face pale, I just smiled. Not the smile of child. But the smile of a insane, broken doll." He opened his eyes again, feeling Daisuke's compassion glide inside him. But this time he welcomed it, almost warmly, and a smile wormed its way on his lips. "I was free. I was finally free."

Daisuke's head fell weightlessly on the mattress, his cheek landing on the wetness his tears had created. He managed a mute nod, his eyes glassy but now emptied of the tears that had traced the sticky rivulets now drying on his tanned cheeks. "And since then, the Zarevitch ceased to exist. Tenshi was no more. Since that moment defined by that insane smirk, I've been the Kaiser."

* * * * *

"Oh my God…" The child of light brought her hands up to her mouth, as if she was sick. Her cheeks burned and seemed to be wet, but it took her a minute to realize she was crying. "They… tortured him?"

"Repeatedly." Koushiro agreed with a nod. "For years."

"Oh my God…" Takeru whispered, recoiling a step backward.

"But… he was a child!! He was only a child!!" Miyako shrieked, whipping around to face the redhead who, once again, nodded mutely. "My God…"

"They ran experiments, tortured him physically and mentally, starved him…"

"Stop…" Ken pleaded, grasping the screen in two shaking hands. "…please." Koushiro nodded again, his eyes moving from the screen to the purple haired boy and back.

"That's why he seeks revenge?" Miyako ventured to ask.

"It seems so." Koushiro agreed in a steady voice.

"No." Ken shook his head, bringing his head up to look at the redhead in the eyes. "What he's doing is not taking revenge. Not only that, anyway." He turned back slowly toward the screen, purple eyes softening for a moment in a sad smile. "He's living the childhood he 's been denied… he's playing…" then his looks darkened, and he straightened his back, snatching his hands away from the screen as if burned. "But this doesn't justify what he'd done to us or to the digital world. We've to stop him." He looked up at the other chosen children and was glad to see them nodding their agreement. "Good." He said firmly. "We're taking Daisuke back!" He said through gritted teeth, raising a clenched fist. All his companions nodded again, and when he nodded back, they all brought their respective digivices and D3 out their pockets. It was then that Miyako gasped, looking at her D3 with an oddly dreamy stare.

"…Ken…?" she said tentatively, lowering her D3 –already over her head- in front of her face. "Could you… give me… Daisuke's D3? Please… I'd like to be the one to give it back--" the lavender haired girl was turning slowly toward him as she spoke, but her words died in her throat, her smile fading into a frown, when she noticed Ken's horrified look.

The purple haired boy looked pale, even paler than usual, and his red eyes hinted to the tears welling up in their depths but never to be shed. "Ken?"

One of his hands rose, shaking, to press against his mouth, wide eyes looking at the ground and yet not seeing it. "I… don't have it…" Miyako gasped loudly, but before she had a chance to utter a single syllable, the boy's wide stare was focused on her, troubled and shocked. "Daisuke's D3… never did it through the digiport…"

"…he's never been trapped… there…then?"

"What?!" Taichi took a firm step toward the now slightly shaking boy, teeth bared and gritted furiously. "What are you saying?! This is nonsense!"

"No at all." Koushiro murmured quietly, and whiting seconds Taichi's burning gaze was on him.

"What?" he hissed.

The computer genius's dark eyes flicked up, and he looked at their newly re-nominated leader through his eyelashes. "You see, the D3s are synchronized with their owner, in a way completely similar to the synchronization between a digimon and their human. The only difference is that –if there isn't an adverse forced working against them- a D3 will never leave its owner's side, no matter what." The redhead nodded at his, taking his chin in two pale fingers, in a pensive pose that gave the impression he was processing something inside his head. Then he nodded again, satisfied with the results of this research oh his. "A proof of what I'm saying is the way the D3s automatically passed through the digital portal to reach their owners once Taichi's touch brought them to life."

A rather uncomfortable silence covered the digidestined, and no sound other than their breathing could be heard in the lazy brilliance of the late afternoon's sun.

"What are you saying…?" Ken murmured at last, blinking his purple eyes quickly. "That… all this time… Dai was…"

"Was really free to come back?!" Miyako incredulous shout ended for him. "But this is impossible!! This is =insane=!! He'd have come back to us, wouldn't he?!"

"If he =could= Miyako." Koushiro said, his usual calm not wavering at all. "If he =could=" He said with a nod, and the girl could do nothing but nod back, understandingly.

"That's how Daisuke came back here today? Using his digivice?"

"Yeah."

"But…" Tk stepped forward, holding his digimon a little tighter. "Chibimon said the Kaiser used =his= digivice…" The red head shook his head, dropping the hand still gripping his chin.

"Probably, he mistook Daisuke's D3 for the Kaiser's. After all, he was present when Daisuke threw it in the dimensional gap, wasn't he?" He shot a glimpse at Ken, who nodded, biting his bottom lip in thought. "And then again, the Kaiser is not a digidestined." A pause. "Even if we =know= he's powerful enough to build up his own digivice literally from thin air."

"ARGH!" Taichi threw his hand in the air, shattering the silence that once again had fallen. "Mulling over this is no use! Let's go and do =something=! Daisuke needs us!" He said feverishly, burning chocolate brown eyes narrowing. The others hesitated a little, and with an angry growl, the brown haired leader stomped over to Koushiro's laptop and shouted at the top of his lungs, "DIGIPORT OPEN!!!"

The all-too-familiar blue radiance overflowed from the tiny screen to inundate the whole room, enclosing everyone in a soft halo, and the brunette in a warm hug. Taichi closed his eyes and then opened them after a spilt second, his anger dissolved into sheer determination. The light seemed to feel it, since it started to spin wildly around him, tugging at him to let him fall toward the dimensional gap; something that –however- happened between seconds. And where the brunette stood was now only a faint glimmer, little lights dancing and flickering in the bluish glow.

The first child of Friendship shook his head, closed his eyes resignedly, and stepped in front of the monitor, murmuring something that sounded like "Always the same, ne Taichi-kun? Never thinking about what you're doing." And with that, he held out his digivice and disappeared too. The bearer of the crest of Love followed him almost immediately, her cute features scolded in a look of cold determination. "We're coming Dai. We're taking you back." Was all she said before the streaming fingers of light caught her too, dissolving her in digital data. Moving with almost perfect synchronization, the bearer of the crest of Hope and the bearer of the crest of Light stepped forward, usually gentle eyes narrowed and lips set in a thin line, every muscle of their bodies tensed up in anticipation. "We'll make the Kaiser realize his errors…" Hikari whispered quietly.

"We'll help him tame his grief…" Takeru added in a voice softened by the compassion.

The bluette bearer of the crest of Reliability, the redhead bearer of the crest of Knowledge and their heir, the emerald-eyed young boy who inherited their traits, followed closely, also determined to save a friend they felt like they had betrayed and failed in the first place.

"And we'll amend to our errors, Daisuke…" he whispered softly before being swallowed by a light so dense it seemed he could feel its touch against his skin.

Once alone, the second child of Love and Sincerity and the child of Kindness eyed each other nervously for a moment, fogged in a strange silence.

"Well, let's go taking Daisuke back." The lavender haired girl said with a smile that, strangely enough, only managed to make the child of Kindness wince. The young woman's eyes focused on the glowing laptop screen and took a few tentative steps toward it, crossing her arms beneath her chest, as if feeling cold. He brow furrowing together as she came to an hesitant halt in front of it, pressing her lips together nervously. It troubled her to no end that her friend… her leader… her confident… the boy she looked up to... the boy that she *loved* for crying out loud, was lost somewhere in a world that wasn't his, alone with a enemy that cared for him in sick way that worried her more that the usual hatred 'villains' seem bound to feel for the 'good guys'. She knew he was fighting a personal battle too; an internal conflict she couldn't help him fight. But what burned, what *really* burned was the fact that maybe Ken could. Was the fact that after leaving him on his own after all that time, she was claiming his as hers only when she was risking losing him. That after days, weeks, months, spent ignoring him, she could be losing him forever.

Ken laid his hand down on the girl's tensed shoulder, a look of sympathy crossing his pale features. "Don't worry Miyako…" he said softly, not sure if he was sounding reassuring, but surely doing his best. "Daisuke's strong. He never gives up. He fought and defeated the Kaiser once. The fact he needs our help to overcome him again doesn't mean we're going to lose. Or to lose him." he said evenly.

"No… maybe we're not going to lose him, but…" She murmured, turning around to face the purple haired genius fully, and even if he couldn't tell it behind her glasses, the boy was almost sure she was crying. She shook her head slowly, before dropping it. "I'm going to lose him, though." She said and, swirling around, hopped forward, disappearing in the wavering light. Left alone, the purple haired boy let loose a long, labored sigh that left him breathless for a second. Then, confused and yet determined, he let the light swallow him as well.

* * * * *

Daisuke was looking around with half-lidded eyes, his face blank of expression, despite the rivulets of tears drying on his caramel cheeks. Slowly, his watery eyes alighted on the digimon standing still in the dark corner. As their gazes met, Daisuke cocked –or better yet, dangled- his head to a side, then to the other, eyes half closed and clouded. The digimon lowered his head, eyes never leaving Daisuke's, scrutinizing the young boy. Something passed across his countenance: sheer determination, mixed with an expression of veiled sorrow. But, upon meeting the boy's eyes, the look in those crimson eyes turned hard, a dark, intent expression rising to his countenance again. He opened him mouth only to close it close afterward, and they stood, gazing at each other in a mute discourse. Then, the Kaiser blinked, licking his lips with a look that was almost like pain in his eyes.

"…Daisuke…?" he asked tentatively, and the digimon looked down, retreating in the darkness, as if sensing his presence wasn't required anymore.

"…yes?" was the slow reply. At this, the Kaiser's eyes closed, and he turned his head upward, licking his lips yet again.

"Are you… happy?" he said slowly, as if the mere talking was painful to him.

Daisuke lowered his head slowly, inspecting the dark carpet. His mind wandered to the events of the previous hours almost on instinct, and his eyes squinted even more, as if trying to see something in the far distance. It all unfolded before his eyes like a tape running too quickly, flashes of images nearly blinding him. And then it all slowed down suddenly, letting his mind focus on certain more precious images. Miyako's hazel eyes bright with tears. The force of her smile when she embraced him. Hikari's hesitant nod. Takeru's wavering grin and watery ocean blue eyes. Taichi's tan face lit up with pride and Yamato's paler one settled in a look of cool happiness. Iori's polite and yet warm smile. Jyou's sigh of relief. Sora's eyes squinting for her sweet smile. Koushiro's disbelief turning into a happy grin. Ken's warmth. The softness of his lips. The flickers in his liquid purple eyes. Daisuke closed his eyes in bliss, letting out a soft sigh. Here it was all he had always needed. Friends. Love. People caring for him, worrying for him, loving him, crying for him. He wasn't alone anymore.

"Yes." He whispered soulfully, opening his eyes. "Now I am."

The Kaiser closed his eyes yet again, refusing to acknowledge the burning moisture quickly welling up in their depths. He choked in a strangled breath, before cracking his eyes open. "I made you happy, my beloved?"

"Yes, you did." Daisuke said peacefully.

"Then…" yet again the Kaiser closed his eyes. "It's time for my repayment."Daisuke gulped, his shoulders tensing up at the sound of the Kaiser's troubled whisper. A cold and even hiss, with something boiling underneath. Regret maybe, remorse. Before he had time to ask anything, the Kaiser hushed him, pressing his lips in a thin line before letting his low voice fill his ears once again. "I gave you what you wanted. What you needed in order to keep on living. I gave you happiness, the kind of happiness you've been seeking for years." His eyes narrowed as his tongue darted out his lips, to lick the suddenly dry skin. "You've to give me what *I* need, now. The obscure corner of your heart, my beloved, where shadows dance and twist as a living creature, is going to be my refuge and my home…and its voice, that sings broken nursery rhymes to you while you sleep, will feed me. What I want, what I *need*, Daisuke… is you. Your mind. Your soul. Your heart… your body."

Daisuke blinked quickly, a frown slowly creasing his lips. His heart was beginning to thump quicker, and sweat was forming on his forehead. He had known all along what the Kaiser wanted back for giving him happiness, then why it suddenly scared him? Why *he* suddenly did?

"Daisuke…" the Kaiser lowered his eyes to the blood red carpet, his voice reduced to a whisper. "What's inside your heart, my beloved?"

Daisuke tipped his head to a side, licking his lips before answering carefully. "The people I met, the feelings I had, the adventures I've been through. All this made me what I am and it's carefully kept in my heart."

The Kaiser's eyes closed as he breathed, "Had your parents made you what you are?" A shiver ran down Daisuke's spine, like a current of electricity, and he nodded hesitantly. A soft, black mist surrounded him slowly and then, unbidden, the pain came. Daisuke fell hands and knees on the ground, the feeling of someone squeezing his heart from the inside leaving him gasping for air, bright spots flashing in front of his eyes. It felt like someone had curled their claws around his heart and was now tugging madly to tear something away from it. And when this something was ripped off his rib cage, Daisuke's mouth shot open, but the pain was so terrible he didn't even have enough breath to scream. The boy collapsed on the floor, forearms and forehead pressed against the carpet, his chest heaving in jagged movements. The Kaiser had taken his parents' memory from his heart, he realized with a shiver.

"Or Jun did?" Daisuke opened his eyes in horror, barely strong enough to gasp.

"N-no…" he managed in breath, but the rest of his sentence died in his throat under the force of a mute scream, his eyes blank with blinding pain.

//How dare you punch Daisuke! He's only five, you idiotic jerk! No one hurts my Otouto and survives!!//

Without warning, his muscles tensed up. Daisuke gasped, whipping his head back in a sudden movement that made him jolt to his knees, his back arched, the soft symmetrical lines of his amber throat exposed, eyes wide and lost, mouth opening and closing in the effort of breathing.

//No, Dai… mom and dad won't be at home tonight… but I… err… made… a cake… Happy Birthday Otouto…"//

//She laughed at you? Ah! She doesn't know what she's losing, trust me! Let that girl alone, she's not worth your time!//

//Problems with Math?! Dai, I *suck* at Math… ah, all right… come here, I'll try…//

Daisuke's mind went blank. His whole body was ragged by shivers and two fat tears rolled down his cheeks when another piece of his heart was cruelly torn apart from him. Once again he collapsed, the pressure around his heart loosening momentarily.

"Or was your loneliness, your pain… the desperation that led you to cut your wrists, what made you what you're now?"

"NO!!" Daisuke shouted, rasping the carpet madly. "NO!!!"

"You won't mind if I take it away, then…" he whispered slowly, tasting each word. Daisuke's eyes shot open, bright with tears, and he literally convulsed, his lungs burning, his mind feeling numb and his body feeling like burning and freezing at the same time. His throat dried as he inhaled air through his wide-open mouth, and his convulsing get worse as the black mist floating around him clawed its way down his windpipe. Once again the claws were curled around his heart, squeezing and squeezing, until the memories of a whole life gushed out the throbbing muscle. Once it was over, the claws disappeared and Daisuke collapsed, mouth hung open and eyes dull, devoid of their usual sparkle. His fingers were fidgeting madly, despite the lack of force and sensation.

"Are you still Daisuke? Is your heart still not completely dark?" When Daisuke didn't reply anything, the Kaiser demanded answers again, lowering his voice to a dangerous hiss. This time Daisuke shook his head, unable to form sentences. "Who are you?" the Kaiser asked slowly. "Are you still Daisuke?"

"Daisuke…" the boy chocked out brokenly. "Daisuke… Daisuke…"

"What's inside your heart, Daisuke? Who?"

"I…" the boy squinted his eyes closed, lying his forehead on the carpet. And in his blank mind, it all unfolded like a movie running on slow motion. Miyako's hazel eyes bright with tears. The force of her smile when she embraced him. All the times they spent arguing over nothing. Hikari's hesitant nod. The beautiful smile that had once captured his heart. Takeru's wavering grin and watery ocean blue eyes. Their friendship blossomed from their rivalry. Taichi's tan face lit up with pride and Yamato's paler one settled in a look a cool happiness. The innumerable battles fought keeping their advice in his heart, trying to be worthy of their legacy. Iori's polite and yet warm smile. The quite afternoons spent trying to make him open up more. Jyou's sigh of relief. The times he offered him his disinterested help. Sora's eyes squinting for her sweet smile. Her advices gave with her heart in her words. Koushiro's disbelief turning into a happy grin. The long lessons he'd gave him to explain him the digital world's principles. Ken's warmth. The countless nights spent whispering over the phone. The games played against each other. The shared looks. The longing touches. The softness of his lips. The flickers in his liquid purple eyes. His smell. His touch. His smooth skin under his fingers. Him. Ken.

"…my… friends…" he choked out at last. "My friends…"

The Kaiser's eyes darkened for a second, rage boiling at the thought that –after all they did to him- the digibrats were the only thing that kept Daisuke's mind together.

"If that's so…" he said slowly, and Daisuke's heart skipped a bet. His whole body tensed up in anticipation of the pain he knew was about to come; his once squinted eyes going huge. "No!" He yelled as the claws returned to crush his heart"NO!!!" He tossed his head wildly, eyes shut down in pain. "NO! Don't take them away from me!! NO! NO! NO!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Daisuke's shout of pain lost itself in the huge castle, bouncing against each wall to echo in every corridor, to cascade down every hallway, to inundate every room; broken and pitched, bloodcurdling in all its intensity. And when the redhead collapsed on the floor, his eyes dead, his breath ragged and his heartbeat dangerously slow, a stray tear welled up at the corner of his eye, and trickled down his cheek to die on the carpet.

The second child of Courage and Friendship had lost his heart.

* * * * *

Ken drifted further and faster into the tunnel of blinding colored lights. And when he suddenly felt like being seized around the waist by immense hands and roughly pushed forward, he snapped his eyes open, the digital lands greeting his wide gaze. He was sitting on a sandy dune, hands on either side of his body, and Miyako was beside him, looking at the other digidestined, shouting to their partners to digivolve, and organizing for the rescue mission. She was gazing intently at the magnificent azure sky, head held high, her mind a million miles away. The girl heaved in a breath and then carefully looked around, a soft halo enclosing her slender shade, dark against the scorching desert sun.

"He doesn't like me Ken, does he?"

Ken drew in a sharp breath, his entire body stiffening immediately, hands clenching around the dust. The girl few feet ahead of him suddenly looked tiny, a precious little doll that needed to be treated with care or she'd break. "Miyako, I…"

"No, Ken." She sniffled, and after collecting herself a little, she looked up at him. "I'm the child of Love, I must know those kind of things. Sure, Daisuke likes me… but he doesn't *like* me. Not as I like him."

"Miya…"

"Not as he likes you." The bright sunlight was bathing them in a warm brilliance, and in that particular moment it hit her glasses with an angle that permitted Ken's purple eyes to meet Miyako's hazel ones. And he was sure they were watery. "I've been thinking about this for a while. Since Daisuke trapped himself in the digital world to save you." Ken winced, but Miyako kept on, oblivious. "But I *never* thought about it as the child of Love. Or as a friend either." She admitted shamefully. "But only as the crazy fangirl I so often proved to be." The girl sobbed quietly, her shoulders raising and falling quickly. "But then… I took my time to think about it. *Really* think about it. And albeit I didn't want to admit it, I saw it. And I actually cursed myself for not seeing something so clear before." She placed her hands behind her back, leaning forward a bit, head titled up not to tear her eyes off Ken's face. "Daisuke likes you."

"Miyako…"

She cut him off waving a hand, turning around and carefully rising to her feet. "Don't Miyako me, Ken. It's no use. The child of Love can't be wrong on these kind of things." She smiled a little, despite her mood, swirling back around to face the boy again. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to leave the scene without a fight! Hell, he might like *you*, but that doesn't change the fact that I like *him*." As they looked at each other, her lips curved up in a small smile. And it seemed it was her first true smile after an eternity. "But if Daisuke ends up choosing you –something I'll try to prevent with all my strength, I'm warning you- and you'll ever hurt him, or make him even the least bit uncomfortable, I will pound you into a wall and beat you." Her smile shifted to a smirk for a brief moment, and then it was back to its original sweetness. It was less bright, and held a hint of sadness too, but it was still warm. "He's very special. And I couldn't stand to see him hurting. I hope you understand."

"I do." Ken smiled, and one hand ran through purple silk as he spoke. "But… I don't think Daisuke likes--"

The girl hushed him with a quiet laugh, bending forward to hover above him. "How naïve you can be, Ken-*chan*." There she took a pause to smile again, reaching a hand out to him. "Wanna go?" The boy took the offered hand gladly, and let her help him to his feet. Once upright, he doubled over, a hand on his chest. "Ken?" the girl at his side panicked, hazel eyes going huge with fear. "KEN?!" she cried, voice pitched in worry. "KEN?!"

Despite how much the former Kaiser wanted to look up and smile at her, he couldn't, his mind fogged by the throbbing pain clenching his heart. It seemed like sharp claws were slashing it cruelly, roughly tearing a piece of it away. And suddenly, in a flash of blinding realization he understood.

Something *was* being ripped apart from him.

His partnership with Daisuke.

The caramel skinned boy's heart was being divided from his own.

And when he screamed, clutching his chest in unbearable pain, his link with Daisuke Motomiya was nothing but a memory.

=========================================

To be continued in part 07: In a Cage of Remorse and Peace of Mind 

**A/N = No, I don't enjoy seeing Daisuke suffer, why do you ask? **

** **

**A/N 2 =I said I'd end everything in the next chapter didn't I?*pauses*Well, maybe. I'm not sure. I've the whole ending here*taps her forehead* but I dunno how long it will be once typed down. Long I fear. Very long. VERY long. VERY =VERY= long…*shrugs* oh, well, with me and my muses you can never know……………….*pauses**blinks**realization dawns over her**gasps*AGH! My favorite ficcie's about to end! Oooohhh… *watery eyes* my precious little Kensuke…………………………………… ;_;*sobs*I'm about to end a Kensuke series for the first time…………………….. *sobs* aren't you proud of your Necchan? **


	7. Shattered Mirror - part 07- In a Cage of...

**A/N= ::bows:: I'm sorry for the *terrible* delay of this one chapter! *bowsbows* I hope that you all that have been waiting for this will find it worth the wait. If you've time to drop me a review, I'd love to hear what you think ^_^ **

**Disclaimers = Digimon's themes, characters and locations belong to Toei and all the rightful owners. Tenshi, and all the characters mentioned in this fic that never appeared in the TV show, are mine. =) **

**Rating = PG-13 **

**Warnings = Shounei-ai. Kensuke, Daiken and Kaisersuke. **

Shattered mirror  Part 07- In a Cage of Remorse and Peace of Mind

The Kaiser groaned and shook his head, and in his darkened corner his digimon fought the urge to sigh in relief. The young tyrant had been staring at nothing for far more time than the digimon liked, and even now moving seemed difficult for the boy, if not painful. Trailing his nails down the carpet with a screeching noise, the Kaiser balled his fists and rose on his knees, eyes shut and breathing difficult. 

The room was flooded with unreal silence, and the low, blackish mist that had been the Kaiser's medium to reach and shatter Daisuke's soul was now streaming over the floor, wavering gently as if moving over unseen currents. While gushing around silently the mist seemed to shift in colour repeatedly, black actually fading to grey and violet in some points. 

Eyes widening briefly before narrowing in dark satisfaction, the Kaiser stared down at his hands and then raised his head, tilting it to one side, then the other, fidgeting slightly all the time. His eyes contracted, squirming and widening imperceptibly in a quick succession, as he turned around his head, trembling as if his neck was paralysed. Licking his lips the Kaiser let out the first, small, chocked laugh. A sound that lasted for only the briefest of moments, but that was long enough to echo in the room. 

Throwing his head back the Kaiser finally surrendered to the cruel laughter burning in his throat, his whole body shaking. The reason of his contentment was easy to guess, but not less troubling for it: trying to find any lingering sense of good feelings inside Daisuke's heart, the Kaiser had found none. The boy was –virtually- gone. His old self didn't reside in his body anymore, and where his heart once dwelled there was just a bottomless hollow now, filled with the darkest shadows the Kaiser could hope to find. 

Shadows that would feed him, nurse him, shelter him, till the end of time. 

Leaping to is feet in one quick, yet fluid motion, the Kaiser found himself breathing hard –the afford of breaking Daisuke had drained him more than he thought- and bent forward, arms frozen at his sides. For a small eternity nothing moved, and the air filled with the jagged breaths of the evil tyrant. Finally, the digimon stepped forward, cloaked in worry. 

"Kaiser…" Hearing the sound, the boy whipped around, even before effectively understanding he'd been called. "Are you…" 

"Fine." The Kaiser hissed, a ghostly grin drawing his lips back. 

The digimon swallowed, and dug one of his toes on the ground, refusing to look away. 

"Daisuke… is Daisuke…" The digimon bit his bottom lip, nodding slowly toward the spot where the digidestined of Courage and Friendship had collapsed, and then to the Kaiser. Slowly, the Kaiser turned around, his eyes coming to a rest on the same spot the digimon had stared at, a dim glow from the window lightening that part of the room to misty shadows.

"Mine." He hissed, drawing in a sounding mouthful of air. "All mine. Forever. Always. No more Ken, now. No more digidestined. Just me. Me. Me…" 

As his exhaustion-induced trembles quieted down, the Kaiser finally forced himself to relax, as much as he ever did, feeling his head pound, adding to the other aches rampaging through his body, and walked over the window. He took a quick look around, and enjoyed seeing the area clear, even though normally he'd be irate at the lack of sentinels. 

"The digidestined?" The digimon squirmed, but bowed his head, reporting the situation carefully. He had both dreaded and expected such a question, and had made sure to be able to answer it accurately. 

"Both the old and the new team went through the digi-port and gathered in the sector 213-B. All their digimon are with them as well, and all but one are in their rookie form." The Kaiser nodded pensively. 

"They're not giving Daisuke up, I take?" 

Reluctantly, the digimon shook his head, exhaling soundly. 

"You didn't really expect them to, right?" 

"Oh, no…" the Kaiser grinned, his eyes flickering to the digimon. "This is just perfect. I promised Daisuke I would spare his friends if they consented to let me keep him. I suppose my beloved told them." A nod. "Good. Then, since they broke the rules of my game, I must and will punish them." With a swirl of his cape the Kaiser began pacing toward the door, his digimon following faithfully. 

It was time for the last act of his little game. 

The Kaiser's true power's apparition and the digidestined's final defeat. 

* * * * *

Miyako watched helplessly as Ken fell deeper and deeper into a pit of sorrowful desperation. He was shaking, and tears streamed down his face in shining rivulets. Breathing was difficult for him, and Miyako wasn't sure it was only a consequences of the incontrollable tears. The way he was clutching his chest was suspicious, and the child of Love and Sincerity couldn't prevent from worrying about Ken's health.

The reality was –surprisingly- a mix of the two options. Ken's breathing had become unsteady because of the tears, yes, but it was just as true that the ache in his chest had caused it. It wasn't, however, a medical problem what plagued Ken.

From the few words she'd grasped in his stream of endless sobs she'd understood that –somehow- Ken and Daisuke's digital partnership had been deleted, worse yet, shattered carelessly, and that was affecting Ken's heart, body and soul in the most horrible of ways.

Daisuke's heart had been ripped away from Ken's.

Miyako didn't like the sound of that. Oh, no. Not at all. Yet, she couldn't stop the small voice whispering in the back of her head that now that Ken and Daisuke's souls weren't linked anymore, maybe Daisuke could be hers. Miyako frowned at herself as the thought crossed her mind, surprised that she would actually rejoice in her friends' pain. Yet she knew better than be surprised.

As the keeper of Love she knew how such an unpredictable and strong feeling as love worked, and she knew very well the effects it could have on people. Unsurprisingly, Miyako herself wasn't immune to the streams of confusing and battling emotions being in love brings up to people's mind.

In the midst of his desperation, with dry sobs making him shiver helplessly, the child of Kindness had fallen on his knees, his arms wrapped around his upper body as a some sort of shield. His hands attempted to wipe away the tears that streamed down, but instead curled around his own arms with such force to make his knuckles turn white.

Nibbling her bottom lip rather hard Miyako glanced at the other chosen, all of whom were now gathered around the two of them. They all looked back at her, each well-known face filled with concern, as her wide eyes seemed to ask, "What do we do now?" And it wasn't long before she vocalized the question.

Hikari was the first to move. She kneeled in front of Ken, gently pushing Miyako out of the way. For once Miyako didn't question her friend, and moved over enough for Hikari to reach the sobbing boy – yet remaining largely within touching distance.

"Ken…" She whispered gently, placing a comfortable hand on his shoulder.

Ken couldn't help it. He flinched. There was only one person he had ever let touch him that casually since the Kaiser accident, and it surely wasn't Kari. No matter how deep her eyes were, or what that with the sunlight dancing behind her they'd taken a dark brown hue. They just *weren't* those deep, molten brown eyes he loved and trusted so much.

Hikari saw Ken flinch away, but didn't remove her hand. On the contrary, she tightened her grip.

"Ken." She said again, softly, yet with authority. The boy swallowed, and raised his eyes to hers, still shaking slightly. Pleased to have his attention, Kari smiled, yet her hold tightened even more. Her eyes lowered, and her usually open face contorted in a serious frown. "Tell me what happened to Daisuke."

At Hikari's words Miyako winced slightly. She supposed that had been a bit too blunt, and she surely had hoped the child of Light would handle the situation with more tact. However, Ken seemed at ease with this new, somewhat dominant side of the brunette digidestined. All the security Ken lacked in that moment seemed to have gathered inside Hikari, and the girl's behaviour was infusing it back into Ken.

"Hikari…" Ken whispered, little gasps choking his voice. "His heart… Daisuke's heart… has been divided from my own…" All the digidestined let out strangled gasps, but Hikari just closed her eyes, head hung down. When she reopened her eyes, those cherry lakes of benevolence, it was to look at Ken with surprising, *cold* apathy. Hikari, for once, was refusing to spread her light on a needing friend.

"Ken." She said flatly. "You and I knew *that* would happen. We knew that all too well." Ken shook his head stubbornly, watching Hikari with as much coldness as he was being stared with. Yet, his voice sounded strangely pleadingly. 

"No…" Suddenly angry, Hikari straightened up a bit and glared down at the distraught boy without mercy, her knuckles turning white around Ken's shoulder.  
  


"Ken, there's no need to lie to ourselves! We knew from the start Daisuke would have gone with the Kaiser!" Ken looked down, unwilling to meet Hikari's eyes, but she kept murmuring fiercely. "Didn't we? Stop hiding Ken! No matter *why* he did it, Daisuke followed the Kaiser. And we *knew* he would. He's just like that. He did that to save us, to save himself. That felt like the best solution to him, and he's not one to ignore what his heart tells him." 

Ken closed his eyes just when his trembles had reached their zenith and when Miyako was about to leap forward and break the two chosen apart. Two huge tears overflowed his closed eyes and trailed down his cheeks, going to meet a beautiful death on the incandescent desert sand. 

"I know." Ken stated simply, and Hikari's whole attitude changed at those words. Her features lightened up in a smile, her whole body unwind, and she sat down on her heels, loosening the grip she had on Ken's shoulders. Ken looked up at her then, and there was a question in her eyes – her beautiful deep and caring eyes. A question Ken knew he had to answer. 

"It's just…" the boy shook his head, lowering it to the ground, and forced himself to relax – Hikari was right, after all. "I didn't want Daisuke to go. I… I didn't expect all *this* to happen. It… it hurts. It hurts just too much…" Ken gripped his shirt over his heart, grimacing in pain. Hikari smiled gently, and her hand moved up and down Ken's arm in a comforting fashion.

"Ken… I know. I know how much pain you must be in. I don't know how devastated I would be if someone was to divide me from Miyako--" unnoticed, the Child of Love and Sincerity let out a small gasp, looking at her long-time friend with wide hazel eyes. Did Hikari actually mean that, she wondered. "—but it's not the shattering of Daisuke and your bond that's troubling you, right Ken?" There was such certainty in her words. A subtle stream of knowingness. Something that shimmered quietly underneath and was waiting for Ken to pick it up.

Which he did.

"N—no?" He asked, more than state, and Hikari nodded almost imperceptibly. "N-no. No." Ken admitted quietly as he lowered his head, not wanting to meet Hikari's eyes during this confession. In front of him the child of Light nodded slightly, saying with a smile Ken couldn't see that she understood. Slowly Ken smoothed his hair back from his face, and rubbed his arms savagely.

Ken knew what Hikari wanted. She wanted him to talk, to open up. And at some degree, didn't Ken want the same? Only… he wasn't sure what Hikari wanted him to say, or what she knew he had inside to tell. Ken himself didn't know what it was that he needed to say; that he needed to ear in his own, low voice. So, taking a deep breath and rubbing his arms slower, Ken ordered his mouth to open and say whatever he'd bottled inside without knowing.

"I… wanted Daisuke to stay with me." He murmured quietly, pale cheekbones colouring with the admission. "I didn't want him to go to the Kaiser! Never!" His voice was lowered in reluctance with his first admission, but it raised to a high note on the last few words. Hikari raised and eyebrow and narrowed her eyes, but didn't drop her hand.

"I know Ken."

"No… no, no! You don't! It's not—I don't…" He screamed, the shaking in his arms increasing. Miyako blinked, taken aback, and shot a doubtful glance at Hikari. What was she up to, Miyako wondered. Why assaulting Ken with words, when he needed reassurance more than anything? 

Miyako herself was torn between curling in a ball and launch herself in a desperate, bare-hand attack to the Kaiser's base, wherever it was. The idea, the mere *concept* of Daisuke being in danger tore her heart apart like nothing else, and here she was, watching her best-friend lecturing mercilessly her former-crush and rival in love, and feeling pity dwell in her heart for the latter. 

Ken was distraught; it seemed like the very foundation of his life had crumbled, and he was wondering, blindly, in a maze of glass where countless hauntingly reflection of his face tormented him. Where the only Light he had to find his way was adding torture to torture. 

Clenching her fists Miyako frowned. In that moment Hikari was dark – as dark as nothing she'd ever seen. Her innate light seemed dimmed – worst yet, seemed to be trapped in a shell of darkness. The angel of Light had disappeared, Hikari had too, and all that remained was a cold tormentor. 

A growl scratched its way out of Miyako's throat and the girl took a step forward, gentle features settled in a cold frown. 

"Hikari…" she began, slowly, but just then Hikari whipped around, and when crimson eyes wedged in her own, Miyako felt whatever resolve she had gathered, shatter. No, that wasn't Hikari, nor the creature of Light that resided in her and so often took control of her action. This was a girl in pain, terrified by the loss of a friend, saddened by it, but determined to cease all the pain she could sense.

Her own, Miyako's, Ken's, Daisuke's--- The Kaiser's even.

Taken aback, Miyako blinked, and retreated of a step. Just then, a soft whisper escaped Ken, and whatever spell Hikari's eyes were casting on her was broken, for the girl ha dipped her head to look at the boy she held.

"I… rejected the Kaiser because… of Dai…" Ken sniffled, and her arm curled protectively around his shoulders. Her arm touched his own as she tipped her head to touch his, letting all her warmth leave her enter and him. "I was so scared, _so scared… _Even thought you'd defeated him, he was still inside me, he was still me… and whispered to me darkly, telling me how much he loathed you all…"

"I hadn't the force to battle him, but… but then Daisuke came… and… and he smiled at me… at Ken, not at the Kaiser… God, when he smiles at me it's like sun rises and… and… Daisuke didn't like him, and I wanted Daisuke to like me, so… so I sent the Kaiser away." Ken's voice was feeble, soft, and he sounded like a child who'd just lost the greatest treasure he had, and was confessing to his mom that yes, he hurt, but that he feared it was his fault if his canary left its cage and flied away from him; that he felt guilty, and scared of being responsible all the same.

The girl drew her fingers through his hair, whispering comfortingly as his eyes stared blankly at the blurred shapes that where his hands, now mere inches from his face – hands that were waiting for an order to cup around his face and hide it from the worlds, so that he would be free to weep, or to fall in the resulting darkness.

"But Daisuke choose him over me… he still doesn't like me… and I… I…" 

"I'm sorry. I wish I could have helped you." She breathed gently.

Ken turned his head to look at her - her sincere eyes, so similar to Daisuke's... A gentle, tender smile curved up Hikari's lips, and the child of Light seemed to transform in a creature of pure light herself. Light that spilled from her like drops of gold. Light that would heal Ken.

And Ken couldn't find it within himself to lie to her. 

He sniffled, tear shimmering in his eyes, and murmured, "Would Daisuke like me if I became the Kaiser once again? Would he chose me over him this time?" Hikari smiled, making soothing sounds as she rubbed her friend's back, and shook her head. 

"No, Ken… whatever it is that made Daisuke follow the Kaiser is not half as strong as what binds you two together. Daisuke doesn't want to stay with the Kaiser, but he has to. He wants to stay with you, but he can't. Not right now. And…" Hikari rose to her feet, and offered Ken a hand. 

After some moments of hesitation in which Ken had time to rediscover how his heart sounded now that it beat alone, the child of Kindness took the offered hand, marvelling at the force such pale and slender digits gripped his own with. 

"And…" she continued, "Whatever feeling you've for Daisuke, tell him. It doesn't matter how, when, or with which words… but he has to know." Ken was about to lower his eyes, but Hikari's cherry orbs caught them, trapping him. "He *needs* to know Ken. Don't be scared. Daisuke cares for you, even if in which degree is past me. Daisuke loves you Ken, never forget it. You, not the Kaiser. And… he needs to hear he's loved back." Hikari let out a soft chuckle, tipping her head to one side. "Even thought this love you share is different from what you've ever experienced before." 

Ken let got of Hikari's hand, but it wasn't a gesture of denial, or the beginning of a retreat. It was his way to show her he was strong enough to stay on his feet without help, now. 

"Daisuke… is my friend." Ken admitted. "My best friend." 

"And so much more." Hikari added. "Your partner, the other half of your soul." 

"…and so much more even." Ken agreed with a smile, sniffling one last time to ease his erratic breathing. Hikari grinned, hands on her hips. 

"And never fear what will come out of this feeling, Ichijouji Ken. Whatever it will be, it will be good." 

Ken ventured a chuckle, and was glad to hear Hikary's cheery lips echo it. Miyako soon joined them, her stress melting in an wild giggle. Other voices echoed them, laughter, groans, puffs and snorts melting in one silvery symphony. Ken felt incredibly, undoubtedly lighter. 

So… Daisuke was important to him. The final admission had been endured. Without Daisuke Ken's world crumbled, but why that was, he still wasn't sure. Throughout the past years Daisuke had stuck beside him through thick and thin, renewing and strengthening their bond, always there for Ken, fighting life, death, destiny and whatever else may had come to endanger his Ken, just to be with him. 

Their loyalty to each other was unquestionable, their friendship unshakeable, and their bond ran deeper than any friendship, any brotherhood, any love-story. Love… Ken had always felt that falling in love was something far in the distance, that would occur to him way after his present had become past. But now, the simple word filled his mind.

Was that the answer?

Daisuke was the most important thing in the world for him. Daisuke was the only person who could bring a smile to Ken's face that was not fake. Why it was Ken simply didn't know, but it was nearly impossible for him to smile and mean it without having Daisuke near. He had been the one to ease Ken's mind when he was still battling against the dark whispers' of his Kaiser's persona. Daisuke had only had to smile with a touch of his unmatchable charm and Ken's heart had stopped bleeding, despite everything.

Daisuke had never let Ken down, and Ken would do anything for him.

The purple haired, shy keeper of the crest of Kindness couldn't bear to think of life without his Daisuke. 

Did *that* count as love?

Incredibly enough, it was Ken's voice but not quite that answered him. And it didn't came from inside, but from somewhere outside in the desert. A voice growled, almost drunken with anger, a harsh dissent, and when Ken looked up, on top of the highest bund of sand, cloaked in sunlight and caressed by dancing and swirling sand, a shadow loomed into view.

As the figure approached, new details were bathed in light and revealed to their eyes. A flicker of purple behind the approaching shape, a blur of silver at his wrists and ankles, a glint of gold on his face, wild thorns of violet on his head. 

The Kaiser was like a work of art; his sensual hips and his trim limbs outlined in a caress of purple. The wild little spike that grazed his right eyebrow. The slightly darker one that kissed the curve of his ear. The crease between his eyebrows that filled with shadows as he tilted his head. The tantalizing merest hint of a smirk that lingered on his mouth as he looked up from under his lashes to his uninvited guests. 

"Welcome in my garden, digidestined." He said in a silken, sultry murmur, and Ken gasped, rapt despite himself. The Kaiser's voice wasn't as appealing as the rest of his body. It was, indeed, capturing, for with his huskiness quality and deepness seemed to wrap around whoever was there to listen and melt them. Miyako didn't like his voice though, and sent Ken a glance that conveyed as much, but she could have been non-existent to him as he stared straight at who once was himself.

That was the first time he saw his counter part in plain daylight and so up-close, and the experience was head-spinning. His voice, his body, his every movement was like a drug for Ken, and the boy found himself retreating.

Something about the Kaiser's countenance caught his attention though, and forced him to a breathless halt.

Blinking, Ken shook his head as if to free it from the strangeness of what was ahead of him, but when he focused bad on the leering Kaiser, nothing had changed. A distinct, almost palpable, veil of darkness seemed to enclose the digital tyrant. If something of his appearance had changed since he was inside Ken, it was his… colour.

The few patches of his skin visible on his face and neck wasn't alabaster, but slightly darker, tanned, as if it'd been infused with darkness. His hair too, wasn't purple like Ken, or shaded with Osamu-violet like in the days when Ken and the Kaiser were one. It was a darker shade of purple; blue covered with a layer of plum. Reddish and amethyst all the same. And the strange mix succeeded in transforming the midnight blue Kaiser Ken had been, the creature of the night, in a hellish demon that walked in a darkened bloom of flames.

Ken bit his bottom lip in worry. Darkness dwelled so deep and strong inside the Kaiser now to be evident on the outside, too? The keeper of kindness found himself wondering what had been of the sweet child that clutched his dragon-friend to his chest, and how could them beat him now that he seemed to have completed a transformation of sort.

Had the shattering of Daisuke and his bond had something to do with this change, with this amount of power galloping rampant inside the Kaiser's veins and fluttering around him in waves, Ken wondered.

"It's highly unkind of you to barge into my gardens with weapons drawn." He continued, arching a perfect eyebrow. "Is this mere loutishness, which I could correct easily with some gratuitous pain, or it's a work of foolishness?" Each and every face in front of him darkened, and the Kaiser chuckled, delighted in the reactions he was eliciting.

"This is my home, dear fools, and I don't have mercy of unwanted guests. Leave now." The Kaiser smiled subtly, waving a gloved hand with gracious nonchalance. "My beloved still cares of you, in some way, and we don't wish to upset my consort on the day of my final victory, now do we?"

A low, ricocheting chuckling escaped him, and Ken clenched his jaw to tame his rising anger.

"And we don't have mercy of people that kidnaps our friends." The chuckle renewed, dark but disturbingly amused, and Ken's teeth clashed with a screeching noise. "Where's Daisuke?"

* * * * * 

_Wherever he was, the boy stirred. He felt warm, no hot, as blazing air and icy fog swirled around him in the most incredible of contrasts. He felt idle; his own body felt far, and it was like only his mind existed anymore even though trapped in a blurring fog. He was actually surprised he could feel the soft caress of the liquid darkness and hot air against his skin. _

_* * * * *_

The chuckle met and abrupt stop, and the Kaiser's smirk turned sweeter, sugary almost. Even though he still wore his visor, even an untrained eye could imagine what kind of mocking expression those shades hid, and for Ken –who had seen that face reflected at him in a mirror for more than he cared to remember- was not only easy, but unnerving.

"Oh, you came to claim him as yours now?" a sigh followed, chorusing a small shrug. "Too bad Ichijouji, you missed your chance already. Give up, will you?"

Ken took a step forward, features twisted with anger.

"I'm claiming no one." He stated, and behind him Hikari frowned. "Daisuke is *not* an object. I'm here to save him and… tell him how much he means to me. I'm here to bring him back where he belongs – by my side." A sharp intake of a breath could be heard form the general direction of behind Ken, but the purple haired boy did his best not to turn. Was that Hikari cheering, or rather Miyako getting worried? Ken wasn't sure he was ready to know yet.

"Confident, aren't we?" the Kaiser sneered, his head snapping to a side as a signal for Imperialmon to stroll up to him, looming into view from behind the sandy hill. "Let's not waste this precious time together by speaking then. You dare disrupting my game. I fear I've to punish you, now." 

Taichi exploded in a throaty laugh at that, fists pressed on his sides.

"Punish?" He spat out when the Kaiser turned to regard him coldly, an eyebrow cocked up. Aware of all the eyes were now him Taichi swallowed hard, plastering his best try at a coy grin on his face. "Give Dai back to us, little punk, or you'll deal with the consequences."  
"Intimidating." The Kaiser said blandly, his face detached of any expression. Despite himself, Taichi shivered… and it wasn't completely out of rage.

Feigning a boldness that he didn't feel deep inside, the former leader of the digidestined raised his chin and snarled darkly, his eyes running up and down the Kaiser's body with calculated scorn.  
"You and your digimon are no match for us, kid." The Kaiser regarded him scornfully and Taichi wasn't sure he was glad to have summoned an emotion on that marble face.

"Watch who you're calling kid, human." Then a smirk blossomed on the Kaiser's lips, and everything afterwards went downhill. "I alone am older… and more dangerous… than all of you together." This said, the low mist that lapped –unnoticed- at the Kaiser's feet began boiling, and rose like a wall of flames, screeching and crying as if a living creature.  
  
Eyes wide, Taichi slumped backwards, a tremble coursing down his back.

"And some of your friends seem inclined to agree." Frowning, Taichi turned, more of a natural reflex than of a pondered action. His eyes quickly scanned the plain fields, searching the faces of his friends for any sign of weakness, or fear.

Determination was what he found; determination and courage; friendship. Strangely enough that traits of the lost digidestined were the one that shone clearly over them all. Taichi smirked, unbelievably proud, reassured, watching all the familiar faces break into similar –albeit less confidant- smiles. But when he aligned his eyes to his left, his eyes narrowed. Yamato stood, few inches from him, and the mere sight of the blonde's present look was enough to make Taichi's certainty crumble as a castle of sand.

Yamato's eyes were wide, incredibly dull, and a thin layer of sweat made his skin, now ashen, glisten in the sunlight. Tiny trembles racked him, and his mouth moved soundlessly in a wave of mixed fear and surprise. Taichi's features settled in a frown without his consent. Never – ever in his life had he seen Yamato Ishida so affected by something.

The Yamato Ishida he knew, the Yamato Ishida he'd fought side by side for years, did *not* tremble. Never. The idea that the mere sight of the Kaiser was enough to reduce the blonde keeper of Friendship to a shacking shadow of himself was… disturbing, to put it lightly. Immensely alarming maybe came a little closer.

"Yamato…?" Taichi tried, but the only answer he got was silence. Then, "What did you do to him?" he hollered to a still unfazed Kaiser.

The younger boy cocked his head to one side and smiled with nauseating sugariness -making Taichi's stomach churn in disgust- before diverging his attention to Yamato, the mist around him reacting to his feelings and growing darker, higher, denser.

"Long time no see, Yamato." The Kaiser grinned, and then bowed his head to other two digidestined that had made their way up to the blonde. "Sora, Jyou. Glad to see you two again, my dear friends."

Sora pressed her hand to her mouth, eyes widening as she searched for comfort into Yamato's closeness. Jyou too stepped closer to his blonde companion, swallowing soundly but looking, in the complex, way calmer than the other two. It was easy to tell, thought, that the blue-nette was straining to keep himself under control. Some kind of quiet dread seemed to radiate from him.

Sora was horrified, but Yamato's reaction was worst than hers. If distress had ever personified, it was inside Yamato now. On his part Jyou tried his best to be as stable and controlled as possible, but his control seemed to be deteriorating quickly.

"The… dark mist." Yamato chocked out a last, drained. Sora gripped her hands together, clenching them again and again until her fingers were sore from the effort. And Jyou's cold behaviour trembled as he clutched Yamato's shoulder, searching comfort rather than offering it. "It's… it was… him, but—how… how?!"

Pleased, Kaiser began laughing, and not only Yamato, but the whole Digiworld, trembled in horror.

"It can't hurt us any further." Jyou reminded through clenched teeth, tightening and loosening his grip on Yamato's shoulder rhythmically.

Taichi let out a sharp breath and turned from the Kaiser to stride toward his three companions, his eyes purposely searching Yamato's. There was something in those azure depths that spoke clearly of inner terror and Taichi felt like it was his duty to banish such a dark emotion.

"Everything alright?" Sora looked up sharply, biting her bottom lip worriedly.

"Taichi…" she croaked out huskily, but no words followed for a long time.

"Tell them." The Kaiser challenged with a shrug. After casting the purple haired boy a quick glance Sora turned back to Taichi, Jyou and Yamato following her lead and gazing at their former leader unseeingly. The keeper of Love squeezed her hands together and cleared her throat. Her voice was still feeble, though, when she attempted to speak again.

"Something… happened to us during our quest against the Dark Masters," she began carefully, her voice cracking. "And… we never told you about it." The brown haired boy smiled at the three of them, trying to pass them as much confidence and thrust as he could, but, for reasons unknown to him, none smiles back. Joyu and Yamato diverged their focus at the ground, evading the brunette's gaze with a seemingly calculated carefulness, while Sora released her breath in a soft sigh. 

Closing confused eyes against the sight, Taichi a deep breath in, relishing in the air, warm and humid, but far from being unpleasant. Every now and then, in the following pause his thoughts would wander to the silent forms in front of him, but he did his best to hide his rising concern. When he opened his eyes again, it was upon hearing Sora's voice deforming the silence.

"I… think it's time for you to know."

"A sort of… mist dwells in the depths of Digiworld and it captured us all once." Jyou took on, eyes dancing frantically from the Kaiser to the digidestined few steps in front of him. "The same Dark mist the Kaiser commands now." Massaging the bridge of his nose Jyou made his best to avoid the shocked looks send his way, and exhaled slowly. "When it gets you, this mist takes control of you mind, and then of your body, whispering dark nonsense to you until you believe them to be you only reality. You're slowly dragged into a nightmare, and the worst thing is that you're not… willing to break free. 

"You… weaken, and lose the capacity to… think clearly. And the mist… gathers energy from--" 

"Fuck it, Jyou, tell them the truth!" Yamato roared in disgust, fists clenching at his sides. His eyes burned Taichi when he whipped around, his voice sounding like clap of thunders. "You're reduce to a puppet, nothing but a fucking doll! And you end up feeding the mist with the sorrow it causes you! You become its fucking nourishment, until you're spent!" His voice cracked and he rubbed his face harshly, a frustrated gesture. Pain. The mere memory of that experience was painful. Hot and searing, forcing unwelcome tears to his eyes. "It took me, not them. It gnawed at my mind for weeks, until it paralysed me. It's thanks to Gabumon if I'm free, now. Sora was in its claws only for few hours, and Jyou feel into it only to save us."

"It still fed off of me, though." The blue-nette muttered lowly, attempting a small smile during the following silence.

"I know Jyou, sorry." Taichi shook his head, confused, and the dishevelling chuckle escaped the Kaiser.

"What a fool, you still don't get it?" the Kaiser shook his head in mocking sympathy, and around him the wall of fog built higher, stretching toward the sky like skeletal fingers. "If my power is so big… so unmatchable… it's because I fed off your friends' hearts, digidestined of Courage." A chorus of gasp rose, and again the Kaiser sneered, a mad smirk blossoming on his face in dark contrast with his immobile stance.

"Then Ken came, the ideal prey, and I began drinking in his never-ending sorrow, for no matter how much I took from him, that amazing toy that was the Dark Seed tore at his mind relentlessly, bringing back awful pain for him, and incredible energy for me." 

* * * * * 

_Running his tongue experimentally over his lips, he gasped, revelling the feeling his senses were sending to his brain. And the breathing in itself made him ravenous for more sensations. Buzzing noises brushed past his ears. Now he could ear too. Could he see, he wondered. Slowly, he cracked one eye open. _

_Maybe he could, but… _

_He closed his eyes again. What was the point of looking when the only thing you can see is nothing? What's the good to be capable to see when there's nothing in your mind you regard as worth to be seen. Yet… _

_**Ken.** A voice in the back of his mind whispered, and suddenly stray rays of light exploded behind his closed eyelids. _

_…Ken…? _

* * * * *

His smirk faltering for the quickest of moments, the Kaiser looked down at Ken with a loathing grimace painted over his face, and seemed to be content just studying Ken's facial expression. Deep down, where he rarely let his mind travel nowadays, Ken could still feel the stings of pain as he let his memories drift to when he had no free control over his actions and emotions. The days before the fall of the Kaiser. The days before who he was had been put into discussion. 

* * * * *

_He opened his eyes again, to find himself still flying (Floating? Drifting?) through the darkness. How long had it been since he had closed his eyes (drift asleep?)? Hours? Days? Months? Years? Ages? The time the Universe takes to be born and die, to be reborn again? It was difficult to say, since nothing had changed. _

_Closing his eyes again, he opened his mouth, allowing air (Water? Liquid darkness?) in. But it held no taste. Creasing his lips in a little frown, he inhaled deeply the darkness (Air? Water?) But it held no smell. His frown deepened, and he drew back his lips in a gesture he couldn't quite understand. _

_* * * * * _

"And then…" the Kaiser began again, slowly, he too caught in his memories. "Daisuke came, with darkness to match my own, beautifully sorrowful and hurting, and whatever lingering emotion for him you left inside me grew, until I saw I needed to make him mine." 

"Daisuke's not a toy!" Ken hollered, crashing back to terra firma. "None of us is!" the Kaiser's eyes lowered into tiny slits, and he growled, irritated beyond words. 

"Of course he's not. He's human. He's important! He's your friend and you all care for him! Indeed! That's why no one ever cares to spend time with him, or to ask him what troubled him so much to make him slit his wrists." Ken froze, one of his hands reaching out, meeting only air. Incredibly enough, the Kaiser backed away, an irate gesture, as scalding liquid built up behind his eyelids.

"Daisuke--- did Daisuke…?"

"You did this to him!" He hissed. "You claim that you care for him, while your actions lead him to the arms of death!"

"We… didn't… wouldn't…" Hikari shook her head, aghast, and the Kaiser hissed curtly.

"He won't know any other pain while being with me! He'll be mine for all eternity, and I'll keep him in a glided cage in which he won't feel anything anymore."

"That's not even living!" Miyako protested, but the Kaiser wouldn't hear them, or look at them, as he whipped around, eyes shut tightly against his boiling anger.

"Go away, now that you still can." He spat out, the sound sliding through the barrier of his clenched teeth.

"Not without Daisuke!"

"Daisuke's mine now!" The Kaiser hollered back at Ken, irritated, but his anger was simply a mask for his true feelings of sorrow. Why had Daisuke had to suffer that much…? but if he hadn't… the Kaiser wouldn't have him now… but he didn't want Daisuke to hurt anymore… 

*Please, he's been hurt enough already… why does he still have to hurt? Onegai… onegai…* 

Daisuke loved the digidestined, but the Kaiser had to punish them. They would hurt Daisuke… but lose them would hurt him as well… the Kaiser loved him, loved him just so much… and he was in pain… Daisuke was still in pain. Despite everything, still in pain… 

"His heart is not yours anymore! You can't feel it beat with yours, isn't that enough of a proof to make you renounce? He won't come back to you! He can't! For he's mine, and mine only, till the end of time! Step back, human child, and let us be!"

"His heart… may be… divided from my own now, but…" Ken shook his head, lowering ever-lovely eyes to the sand. "…my heart will always be… with him." He swallowed hard, ashamed at his confession.

* * * * *

_Allowing his lids to flutter up, he found that something had changed. The blurred colours that had taken the place of the darkness he dwelled in had shaped themselves into solid forms, faces, bodies. And the boy was amazed to feel a sparkle of recognition stir inside him as he surveyed each face. _

_"They're hurting…" _

_There was a strong, courageous young lad in the middle of his field of vision. Tall, tanned, the aura of a leader pulsing around him. Next to him, a girl with kind eyes and pretty features steadied a boy with hair of gold and one with marine hair. All the three of them radiated warmth, a degree of quite strength that seemed to flow of them and into him. _

_"I hurt them…" _

_In the near distance, another boy, slightly shorter, scanned his surroundings with keen eyes, clutching close to his chest some kind of processor. At his side, young, but with no trace of childlikeness, another boy stood, rising proudly against the brilliance spilling from the desert sky. _

_"…how…?" _

_And at last, there was a handsome child of the sun; the sweetest maiden and the prettiest angel of heaven. They stood, unshaken, around… _

_"Ken…" that one he knew. That one he cared for. That one… _

_He smiled, warmth suffusing through his body, and closed his eyes, peacefully, his head lolling to one side. "…love…" _

_* * * * * _

Ken's eyes grew wide. Whispered words seeped into his ears; his name being called in the distance made him raise his head, hesitantly. At the same time the Kaiser whipped around, eyes equally wide behind his purple shades, and his and Ken's eyes met, connected by an invisible force, stronger than words could explain. Ken's knees weakened, his mouth suddenly becoming dry. The purple haired digidestined murmured something unintelligible into the nothingness, and the Kaiser sucked in a ragged breath, incredulous.

There was something wavering in the air that resounded into Ken's ears like a heartbeat… like an echo to his own heart's rhythm.

Thump-thump.

Thump-thump.

Thump-thump.

_//Daisuke…?// _

Thump-thump.

_…Ken… _

Thump-thump.

_//Daisuke!// _

_Thump-thump. _

_…Ken. _

=========================================

To be continued in part 08: The Beginning and The End 

**A/N = I hope you enjoyed it, it has been pretty exhausting to write. =) I hope that you're not disappointed this is not the last chapter, as I said inside chapter 06, too. **

**Daisuke = Well, I dunno. This was rather plot-less. I mean, I would have preferred to see how things ended up instead than… err… what happened in here, again? **

**Miyako = *starry eyed* The force of your love for Ken is freeing you from the Kaiser's grasp and you're managing to re-forge your shattered bond!! *fan-girl squeak* **

**Ken = *sweatdrops* I thought you liked Dai, Miya… you're not supposed to go all giddy over the power of his love for me… ^^;; **

**Miyako = *still in the fan-girl mode* But this is so romantic… *sighs* **

**Daisuke = Excuse me? I thought it was the force of *our* love, Ken. *stomps foot on the floor* **

**Ken = Well… yeah… I mean… maybe… I'm not sure yet… I mean… we don't… you… and I… err… **

**Miyako = Don't worry Dai-babe! *glomps Daisuke* If Ken rejects you, there's me to comfort you! ^^V **

***stunned silence* **

***a cough comes from outside, and it sounds pretty much like the Kaiser's voice* **

***the silence stretches on* **

**Nemesi = Uhm… okay… err… it's review time? =) *hopeful* **


End file.
